Pretending to Pretend
by SplendentGoddess
Summary: After a painful breakup, Inuyasha wants to make Kikyou think that he's fully moved on. Wanting to do anything to help, his best friend Kagome is willing to pretend to be his new girlfriend. There's just one problem. She's really in love with him.
1. Chapter 1

So sorry this is so late! *bows in apology* Yes this _is_ my Christmas story, and all I can say is I'm glad there wasn't a more strongly enforced deadline like on Project Runway or Chopped, because I would've either been sending a half naked model down the runway or serving the judges undercooked food! Real life has been **Ahhhh!** and this story was _**Grrrr!**_ but finally, after a major overhaul, I was able to get it to cooperate and turn into a story you will _hopefully_ all love just as much as I do. With that said, I now present my regularly scheduled author's note followed by the story in question. Enjoy!

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Welcome, and Merry Christmas!

Having probably exhausted all plausible scenarios for a _canon_ Christmas story, I'm sticking with modern AU, although unlike last year's story this universe has even moreprejudice towards hanyou, as humans and youkai do not generally coexist. For the purpose of needing a lot of human extras and faced with the choice of either converting youkai characters into humans or creating completely original characters I have chosen the former, so whenever you see human-looking youkai like Yura or Kagura mentioned as fellow college students, they are all human in this universe. I'm also not using suffixes or too many Japanese terms this time around because meh, I didn't feel like it, LOL. It is supposed to take place in Japan, but it's obviously a _fake_ Japan since youkai are real in this world, so I figured I could bend the rules a _little_ bit.

The rules of this universe are fairly simple. As if two countries with their own separate governments both occupy the Japanese islands simultaneously, everything negotiated by treaty and trade agreements, there are designated youkai districts and designated human districts but no true neutral zone where the two species can more freely intermingle. Some aspects of society are universal, such as both sides agreeing to a single currency, and all hospitals are safe havens, staffed with and designed to treat members of either species, but it is rare to find a youkai living in the human part of town, or vice versa, and even after inter-species marriage was made legal fifty years ago such unions are rarer still, those unions producing hanyou offspring even more so. While humans as a whole no longer care about purity among their _own_ kind, and likewise it's not uncommon to see two different species of youkai together, that last great barrier, between human and youkai, gives the bigots of the world something to cling to. The fact that hanyou are sterile, at least in their hanyou form, is evidence, they claim, that the two species aren't meant to interbreed. Fortunately, since hanyou are protected by law and hate crimes are quite illegal, those few hanyou that are born don't usually, actually have to fear for their _lives,_ but it's still a difficult, ofttimes lonely existence.

Especially for the currently nineteen-year-old Inuyasha who just found out the hard way that his longtime girlfriend Kikyou wasn't who he thought she was. If he's ever going to believe that somebody out there could truly love him for him it's going to take a Christmas miracle.

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~ Pretending to Pretend ~

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Chapter One

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"But...but Kikyou, I _love_ you!" Inuyasha declared, a few tears starting to shimmer in his eyes.

"I don't care!" Kikyou shot back, pulling on her skirt. "If you think I'm gonna let that...that... _thing_...anywhere near me, you've got another think coming!" She shuddered once more in revulsion just thinking about it. She was going to have to wash her hands at least ten times. "It's bad enough you've got those ears, but I thought you were human where it _counted,"_ she stressed.

A few rogue tears fell, but the naked – and now flaccid – nineteen-year-old did nothing to hinder their travel down his cheeks. It was as if Kikyou were the one with claws and she had just ripped his heart from his chest, before then also stomping on it with her high heeled shoes.

"But you always said my youkai differences didn't matter, that you didn't mind my hair or eye color, or my ears, or my claws, or my-"

"That was before I realized how much of a freak you trulywere," she interrupted as she threw on her blouse and hastily buttoned it before slipping into aforementioned high heels, which were in the bedroom because earlier that evening he had actually picked her up in his doorway after opening the door and carried her into the bedroom in a romantic gesture. That she'd actually put them on in his bedroom instead of just picking them up to carry out into the entryway further went to show how little respect she had for him.

"Put some clothes on, for crying out loud!" she snapped then.

He _was_ crying out loud at that point, and he didn't even care. If she had _laughed_ at him, that would have been humiliating enough, but if she had laughed but then apologized, cleared her throat and told him it didn't matter, while the humiliation would still have burned he would have probably still tried to go through with their love making. It was their first time, after all. Or it was _supposed_ to be.

She was his high school sweetheart. They'd met their first year, when he'd been all alone and even shunned by most of the student body. Gradually, they had become friends, Kikyou saying she understood how it felt to be an outsider because there weren't too many reiki users at their school, either, and she'd often wished she were a normal human without such powers. That he was half youkai hadn't bothered her, she'd claimed, saying she'd felt like they were two halves of the same coin, both of them human and yet not truly human. It had actually surprised him when she'd gone against tradition, bravely asking _him_ out on a date, but he'd eagerly accepted and they had continued dating after that, which had turned into a steady relationship by their second year of high school. They hadn't really _done_ anything, dedicated to their studies and getting into a good college as any good career-minded high school student should be, but it had seemed to be a foregone conclusion that they would continue their relationship into college and adulthood.

Even when he'd ended up making good close friends in Miroku, his girlfriend Sango and their mutual friend Kagome by the end of his second year, and they'd made their dislike of Kikyou known throughout their growing friendship, Inuyasha hadn't let himself see what they had been trying to warn him about.

Kikyou was only with him for his money, Miroku had warned him. He in turn had argued that Kikyou had told him on several occasions that she would've loved him even if he were poor. It wasn't like it was the woman's fault his family was rich, after all, and so what if he wanted to dote on his girlfriend? She deserved it, not as a reward for being willing to be with him, but simply because he wanted to show her how much he loved her and how much her love for him truly meant to him.

Kikyou thought she'd landed herself the perfect catch because nobody else would want a _hanyou_ like him and so she'd never have to worry about him stepping out on her, Sango had claimed to overhear Kikyou say to her girlfriends once.

While he'd disputed the intended meaning behind what he'd figured Sango might have been somewhat misquoting, how could he truly be upset with Kikyou for saying she was glad to know he would never cheat on her? He _never_ would, he'd confirmed for Sango, so Kikyou had been right in her assessment. Indeed she _had_ found the perfect catch, in finding a _loyal_ man whom she knew loved her with all his heart.

It wasn't really a sacrifice that hanyou were sterile in their hanyou form because she didn't want children anyway, and she _definitely_ wouldn't want _his_ children, Kagome had told him _she'd_ overheard Kikyou say once.

It was a moot point, Inuyasha had argued, since he was indeed sterile except for his human nights and during a full-youkai transformation. It would've been possible for he and Kikyou to have human children one day should she have wished it, but if she'd truly never wanted children that had also been all right with him. And after growing up facing the prejudices hanyou had to face in their world, he definitely had no intention of attempting the rather dangerous procedure of siring a child during a transformation. He would've told her no even if she'dwanted to, for her own sake as well as the child's.

After a while, his friends had stopped trying to get him to see how Kikyou hadn't been right for him. Their warnings hadn't ended his friendship with them, thankfully, and for that he'd been grateful. They truly had only had his best interests at heart, after all, because they truly _were_ his friends, and once he'd told them to let it go, they had, respecting his wishes. He'd never gotten truly upset over it, never called them liars or accused them of trying to tear he and Kikyou apart for any ulterior motive. Instead, he'd merely defended that there was nothing wrong with Kikyou being happy over the fact that he could afford to buy her anything she wanted. That he knew he _was_ a freak of nature, as was the general consensus among most people when it came to the rarity that were hanyou, and he _was_ lucky to have found someone like Kikyou who was willing to overlook his differences. Miroku had even made him admit, once, that if, just _if_ , Kikyou didn't really love him and was only using him for his money, he would still rather be with her than be alone. He'd stupidly said that he loved Kikyou enough for the both of them.

He saw the looks he got from most people. He saw the looks _he and Kikyou_ got whenever the two of them were out together in public. She'd always assured him that she didn't care what other people thought, that she loved him and his unique differences were just a part of who he was.

"If you love someone then you accept _all_ of them, for who they are, Kikyou. You told me that! On more than one occasion!" he snapped then, finally pulling on his red boxer briefs to hide the 'malformed' appendage that had apparently been the final straw that broke her charade.

"I only said that when I thought those stupid ears of yours were the worst of it," she replied, grabbing her purse.

Turning and looking at him, standing there still in nothing but his underwear, a few tears running down his cheeks although he wasn't truly blubbering like an idiot, Kikyou's disgusted expression didn't soften even in the slightest, no hint of guilt for breaking his heart present in her scent.

"Look, I'm sorry, but the truth hurts," she said then, not one speck of genuine remorse in her tone. "You're kinda cute and all, and you're quite the catch on your human nights, so had you been..." She waved her hand up and down, vaguely gesturing to his entire physique. "...more _normal_ , I would've been willing to stick with you. Believe me, I'm sacrificing a lot by walking away. I'll miss the flow of money, but a girl's gotta have her pride, you know? I have to decide what I'm willing or _not_ willing to do just to live the good life."

She made it sound like he was some disgusting old man, like the twenty-year-olds who married eighty-year-olds and _made them happy_ to get themselves put into the will. From the way she was talking now, it was clear that Miroku had been right. She'd never truly loved him, ever. Not at all. Was she even capable of the emotion?

"All this time..." he murmured slowly, his heart shattering into smaller and smaller pieces at the realization. "All this time you were just using me. You saw me as a mark. It might be hard to catch a rich _human_ because you'd have competition, but the rich _hanyou_ was an easy target. You thought you'd scored."

"Try not to take it personally," she said, basically admitting he was right.

"Don't take it _personally?!"_ he shouted. "You're breaking up with me over my penis! It doesn't get much more gods damned _personal_ than that!"

"Lower your voice!" she hissed at him.

The walls in his apartment building weren't soundproof.

"No!" he argued, not giving a fuck who heard him at the moment, although he did lower his voice a little bit. "You owe me an explanation, and an apology, and...and...just what the _fuck,_ Kikyou?"

"I don't owe you anything," she shot back. "No self-respecting woman would be willing to be with a creature like you. Maybe you can buy yourself a prostitute, if she's desperate enough, but that'd be about it."

"If you were only with me for my money then what do you think that makes _you_ , Kikyou?" His voice was low, his words steady.

As if she truly had the right to be angry with him in any twisted interpretation of that night's events, her eyes lit up with true fury at his insinuation.

 _Heh, apparently the gold digger doesn't like being told she's just a private whore_ , he thought with a smirk.

Of course, his amused expression only made her that much angrier. It was as if she blamed him for wasting the last three and a half years of her life, when she could've spent that time building up a relationship with a _human,_ as if he should've warned her when they were sixteen that he had a 'dog dick' as she'd so eloquently described up upon discovery, even though in _his_ opinion that wasn't really true. He turned human once a month, after all, so he knew damn well what a human man's penis was supposed to look like. Okay, so his skin turned the same _color_ as a canine's phallus, but his shape and design remained fully human. Well...save for his pubic hairs actually being short white fur, just a little longer than what coated the back of his ears. But he didn't really look like a _dog_ down there, sheesh. And had he known his physical differences were going to freak her out then he _would_ have warned her in advance at some point, but after she'd already assured him on more than one occasion that she loved him for him and didn't mind his claws, fangs or ears, why should it have occurred to him? She'd never asked him, either! Her reaction had definitely revealed that the possibility of him being different down there in any way had never even crossed her mind. How could he be blamed for never thinking to tell her when she'd also never thought to ask? It had come as a complete shock to her when she'd pulled back the blanket in his dimly lit bedroom to reveal what she'd already been touching, for the very first time.

She'd reacted like a girl in a dark room turning on a light to suddenly discover she was surrounded by spiders, or dead bodies, or dead bodies covered in spiders. It had been quite impossible for her to hide her shock and disgust as she'd frantically released him and leapt from the bed, repeatedly rubbing the palm of her right hand over the side of the panties she'd still worn as if trying to remove some imaginary layer of filth.

"Go ahead and mock me," she said then, in a tone of voice that almost suggested he'd just pissed off the witch in a fairy tale.

 _Oh crap, is she going to try to purify me human?_ briefly flashed through his mind although he tried not to let his sudden worry show.

"At least I will be able to find myself a new companion, even if I _do_ have to start over from scratch," she continued then. "Summer break has only just begun, and I was hit on plenty of times last semester by _real_ men who didn't know why I was with you. I'm sure I can find myself somebody. You?" She shook her head. "I might even find a man I can truly love one day, but _no_ woman will _ever_ love you. You're disgusting. The only chance you might possibly have is with an _unattractive_ woman who can't land herself a _normal_ man, and even then she would _still_ only be with you for your money."

What cut the deepest about her words was the fact that he believed her. She was saying it on purpose to be cruel, and he knew that, but that didn't mean she was wrong. Like she'd said already, the truth hurt.

"Just get out," he said at last, both his tone and posture defeated, although that didn't mean he didn't have a _little_ bite left. "Leave now, and I won't shout after you from the doorway that I'm sorry I wasn't _attractive_ enough for you to be willing to _fuck_ me for my money."

Her nostrils flared, but Kikyou knew better than to call his bluff. She knew she'd been vicious, perhaps more so than had been necessary, so she wouldn't put it past him to make good on his threat if she continued to fight with him.

"Freak," she said, just to get the last word in, as she whirled fast enough to fan out her long black hair before storming out into his living room and towards the front door.

Just before she left he called out, "Good luck with next month's rent!"

She paused, for only a second, but didn't say anything else, slamming the front door behind her when she left.

Inuyasha remained standing in his bedroom, in his underwear, staring out into the small combination living and kitchen area of his small one bedroom apartment for he didn't know how long before the pent up emotions finally boiled over and he picked up the first object he could get his claws on, which just happened to be a framed photograph of he and Kikyou, and threw it so hard it traveled all the way to the other end of his apartment and crashed against the kitchen wall, the corner of the frame making a small hole in the wall before the picture fell and shattered glass spread everywhere.

He'd clean it up later.

Maybe.

What did he care? His _freakish_ bare feet weren't susceptible to being cut on broken glass, after all.

Humorlessly, he snorted a half laugh, relieved they hadn't decided to share their first intimate night together during the new moon. He had actually offered, for her sake, not that he'd been concerned about his _appearance,_ but he was actually a little...less impressive...on his human nights, and he'd been thinking of Kikyou's comfort. But she had told him that she wanted to be with the _real_ him, that she loved him, _all_ of him. He snorted again at the tainted memory, as more tears fell unchecked.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Concentrating on the pencil she held in her hand, Kagome narrowed her eyes and directed her focus on the lead tip, which was pointed upward. Slowly, the tip of the pencil began to glow a light blue, and she grinned in triumph, but her concentration was short-lived when a knock on the door shattered her focus, her powers receding back into her body.

Sighing, Kagome got up and answered the door.

"Oh, hey guys," she greeted with a genuine smile, stepping out of the way to let Sango and Miroku enter her small living space.

They kicked off their shoes in what passed for the entryway and then made their way over to the couch, Kagome having a seat in the side chair.

"Practicing your reiki?" Miroku asked conversationally. "I could feel it all the way out in the hall."

Kagome grinned sheepishly.

"It's surprisingly hard to keep it restrained to a fine point," she explained. "If war ever broke out and I was called on to fight along with all the other registered spiritualists, I'd hate to accidentally harm a youkai ally fighting on our side against the rebels because I couldn't keep my powers from expanding in the heat of the moment."

Miroku laughed, waving off her concerns.

"You listen to your grandfather too much," he teased her good-naturedly. "First of all, there's not gonna be another war. The unrest ended centuries ago and these days, the youkai government does a fine job of keeping their few would-be rebels in check."

"You mean they execute them," Sango pointed out. Miroku merely shrugged.

"And _if_ you were needed to fight," he continued, not disputing Sango's claim because it was true, not that it was any of his business how the youkai government dealt with their own people, "then I know you, and I know your heart would _never_ allow you to accidentally harm an ally standing beside you. Reiki is controlled by the heart, which is why it comes so naturally when you're _not_ concentrating."

"It's definitely a paradox," Kagome agreed. "The harder you try, the more difficult it becomes." She sighed. "I was just...trying to keep my mind occupied."

Sango and Miroku both nodded their understanding to that.

"That's why we came over," Sango said.

"How's he doing?" Kagome asked.

"Not good," Miroku answered, sighing himself that time. "She really destroyed him."

 _That bitch_ , Kagome thought, getting angry for a moment before closing her eyes and breathing deeply, trying to calm her raging emotions.

"I feel the same way," Sango said, easily reading Kagome's thoughts in her eyes and body language.

The miko nodded.

"I wish there was something we could do for him, but he has to let us in before we can help him," Miroku said then. He and Sango had just come from his place, trying yet again to take him out for ramen, or _something_ , but to no avail.

Kagome nodded to that as well, knowing it was true. She'd tried to talk to Inuyasha herself on more than one occasion, and he'd always just asked her to leave him alone.

Of course, seeing him so completely broken, the hanyou staying holed up in his apartment for two weeks straight without even taking their phone calls or replying to their texts, all their plans for enjoying summer break together gone out the proverbial window as they spent their time knocking on his door, just trying to get him to _eat_ something, watching him go through the motions like a zombie as he finally started buying himself a few groceries from time to time, Kagome hadn't been able to sit back and do _nothing_. But telling Kikyou off to her face had been much less satisfying than Kagome had hoped, and it'd done her no good. Not only had Kikyou unabashedly shared the intimate reason _why_ she'd broken up with Inuyasha, she'd actually had the audacity to brush off Kagome's ire and accuse the three of _them_ of only using Inuyasha for his money, too, since the five of them had often hung out together and Inuyasha had always paid for whatever they did.

But that was just Inuyasha's way. His father was _insanely_ rich, the family company being incredibly successful, and Inuyasha would never have to want for anything, except companionship, so he enjoyed treating his friends to dinner, or Disneyland, or whatever they happened to be doing that day. So what? Had he actually been trying to buy their friendship? Of course not. They hadn't even known Inuyasha had money when they'd first befriended him. He'd surprised them one day, telling them that their friendship meant so much to him that he wanted to do something spectacular to show them his gratitude.

Their first of many trips to Disneyland had certainly been a surprise, but it hadn't made Kagome like Inuyasha any more than she already had. She'd already considered him a great friend by that point, and it wasn't like she was poor and had never gone to Disneyland before in her life. She'd even tried to argue at first, agreeing to the trip but insisting she could pay her own way, and it had only been after he'd insisted in turn that he would feel insulted if she rejected his offer to pay for her that she'd relented.

"I still can't believe Kikyou said that," Kagome said then, the _good_ miko having immediately told Sango and Miroku what Kikyou had accused them of doing.

Miroku had in turn made sure Inuyasha knew that that _wasn't_ true. He'd gone over to the hanyou's apartment and personally told him that he, Sango and Kagome _were_ his friends and were there for him no matter _what_ , and that if there was even an ounce of fear in his heart that they truly were only friends with him for his money that he never had to spend a single yen on any of them ever again and they would _prove_ to him that it had never been about the money.

Distraught as he was over Kikyou, Inuyasha knew the others truly were his friends. They had tried to warn him about Kikyou, after all, and he knew they hadn't known he was rich in the beginning. He'd told Miroku that while he wasn't in the mood to try and do anything fun, and he probably wouldn't be for the rest of his life, he did believe the holy man that he, Sango and Kagome were really his friends, and for that, he was grateful, Inuyasha had assured him, before then asking him to leave because he wanted to be left alone.

"They say money can't buy happiness, and for Inuyasha that was true, growing up," Kagome murmured, more talking to herself, feeling truly sorry for her friend as she realized that Kikyou's rejection had undoubtedly brought all of his old pain back to the surface.

He actually _had_ tried to buy friends as a small child, she had learned eventually, when he'd confessed to her during one of their one-on-one moments how lonely he'd been as a boy. Afraid for their child's safety should they have put Inuyasha in a youkai school, Toga Taisho lived with his wife in their local human district, so Inuyasha had always attended human schools and had thankfully never been on the receiving end of a gang of youkai bullies, but he'd still been lonely as a boy, none of the human kids willing to be his friend until he'd started bribing them. It might have worked except the children's parents had never wanted to let their kids play with a hanyou, so even the rare few human children who would have otherwise been willing to be his friend had told him they weren't allowed to talk to him before leaving him alone.

Of course, Kagome had assured him right then and there that _she_ didn't care that he was rich _or_ a hanyou, that she liked him for him and if she had known him back when they were younger then she would've been his friend back then, too, _without_ the need for being bribed first. That had really meant a lot to him, he'd told her.

When Kagome and the others had first met Inuyasha he'd been happily with Kikyou, so she hadn't even realized, at first, how lonely and sad his life had been prior to meeting his girlfriend the year before. Kagome had been happy for him, of course, even more so after hearing about how Kikyou had been his first true friend, and how it had been because of her that he'd learned how to open up a little more and make more friends. When Miroku had said hi to him that one day at school, instead of Inuyasha being closed off and withdrawing into himself, not knowing what to do with himself in the face of someone actually trying to talk to him, he'd braved saying hi back and over time their friendship had just naturally developed.

"Kikyou was so nice in the beginning,"Kagome said, reflecting back on their last year of high school.

They had spent their second year of high school getting to know Inuyasha and Kikyou, but by the end of the school year they had all been the best of friends, or so it'd seemed. At first, starting their third year, all five of them had always hung out together, and while Kagome had kind of felt like the fifth wheel around the two couples she'd never truly felt excluded. Sango and surprisingly also Inuyasha had both made sure of that. Then Kikyou had started excusing herself from their outings, but not necessarily in a rude way. She would just apologize to Inuyasha and tell him that she had plans with her own group of girlfriends and so then Inuyasha would go hang out with them, just the four of them, while Kikyou did her own thing. Not always, just sometimes. And Kikyou had never tried to get him to _not_ hang out with them, telling him that she was glad he'd made new friends so that she didn't have to feel guilty that he was all alone while she went off to do girlie things. She had seemed like an understanding girlfriend, and of course other times the five of them had still all hung out together. But Kagome, Sango and Miroku had also all started to notice little things about the miko that over time had become little warning signs. Signs that had really been there all along but they just hadn't been able to see them until after getting to know Inuyasha and Kikyou so well and really coming to consider Inuyasha a close friend. Then Sango and Kagome had started to overhear Kikyou when she'd say certain things to her other girlfriends at school, and that had been the deciding factor to say something to Inuyasha about it.

When he'd told them that he didn't want to hear about it, that he truly cherished their friendship and didn't want to taint it with thinking that they didn't like his girlfriend, they had all agreed to let it go, but with trepidation in their hearts. Kagome, especially, had started to hate seeing Inuyasha so happy with Kikyou when she _knew_ how Kikyou really felt, but after having already told Inuyasha what she'd overheard what more could she do? Confront Kikyou? At that time, that hadn't been her style, but now looking back on it, Kagome really wished that she had.

"It was all an act," Sango said, in regard to Kagome's comment about Kikyou having been nice at first. "He wasn't the only one she fooled. At first, she tricked all of us." Her tone indicated that she wished she'd said something to Kikyou, too.

Sango remembered well how Kagome had tried to be nice to Kikyou in the beginning. They were both miko, after all, and her boyfriend Miroku was also a houshi, so if Kikyou had also felt somewhat isolated, having originally not known any other spiritualists, well then now she'd had two she could call her friends. But Kikyou had already had her own growing clique of girlfriends by that point, fellow gold diggers they realized now, looking back on it, and Kagome and Sango had definitely been the outsiders in _that_ group, not that Kikyou had ever extended an invitation to begin with. But neither had she been jealous of Inuyasha hanging out with three people without her, two of them girls, and one of those girls single and available. Inuyasha was nothing if not loyal and he would have _never_ stepped out on Kikyou, and she knew it.

Plus Kagome wasn't that type of a girl.

Sango had her suspicions, of course, but she'd never come right out and asked her best friend if her feelings for Inuyasha went beyond mere friendship, and likewise she'd never discussed it with Miroku. Until now it wouldn't have been appropriate for Kagome to admit, even in private, that she _liked_ liked Inuyasha, although personally Sango thought the two of them would make a fabulous couple and she'd often privately found herself wishing Inuyasha would fall for Kagome and dump Kikyou, but that had just been a passing fancy, a daydream she'd never shared with anyone. She and Miroku _had_ discussed, once, that it was too bad Inuyasha had a girlfriend because then, should he have been single, they had both thought that he would've been perfect for Kagome, but that was as far as the conversation had ever gone, and that had been over a year ago.

But Sango had eyes, and she'd seen the way Kagome and Inuyasha would interact during the times it had been just the four of them, how Kagome would look at Inuyasha when she didn't realize anyone was watching. Sango was convinced that while her miko friend had been fully prepared to suffer in silence for the rest of her life, she was in love with Inuyasha.

"I just wish there was something we could do for him," the miko said then. It was tearing Kagome up inside seeing Inuyasha so torn up inside.

Indeed, Kagome was in love with Inuyasha. There was no denying it, at least to herself, although she was grateful neither Sango nor Miroku had ever asked her about it. She suspected Sango knew. More so, she suspected she was just not quite so good at hiding it, but at least Inuyasha seemed to have no clue and she planned on keeping it that way. Just because he was single now didn't mean he was suddenly available _._ A rebound was the _last_ thing he needed, she knew, and heaven forbid he think she was just using him, taking advantage of his anguish for her own gain.

 _Never..._ she vowed to herself.

Maybe, down the road, once he was truly over Kikyou, if _he_ expressed an interest in _her_...

But Kagome wouldn't let herself truly entertain such slim possibilities right now. Right now, all she cared about was easing his heartache, as a friend. She just wished she could cheer him up, or at least take his mind off of his pain in some non-romantic way, like playing video games down at the arcade.

One of their first and still favorite pastimes prior to Kikyou ripping his heart out had been the local arcade. Before they'd known he was rich and before he'd started insisting on paying for everyone's game use, that had been where all five of them, and then just the four of them, had hung out more often than not. Even after he'd revealed his finances and started treating them to other, more expensive outings, Shikon Arcade had still been their fallback favorite destination. And once Kikyou had started doing her own thing half the time, that had enabled the times it was just the four of them to then make way for it being just the _two_ of them, Inuyasha and Kagome, the hanyou and miko often visiting and getting to know each other better while waiting for their turn at whatever two-player game Sango and Miroku were currently trying to kill each other on.

It had been times like those, eating junk food and watching Sango kick Miroku's ass, that Inuyasha had told Kagome about his difficult childhood, among other things, and she'd also taken the time to share with him the details of her own life, growing up on a shrine, and how horrible it had been when her father had died. Then it would be their turn to play the game together, and Kagome had gotten the distinct impression on more than one occasion that Inuyasha had let her win.

Yes, she had fallen for him, hard, but even after becoming convinced that Kikyou was only using him, Inuyasha's love for Kikyou had been undeniable, and so if she truly made him happy, Kagome just hadn't had the heart to try and break that up. Miroku had even revealed what Inuyasha had told him, once, that even if it _were_ true, he still wanted to be with her, regardless, although in Miroku's opinion Inuyasha hadn't really believed, at the time, that Kikyou was using him. But even Kagome had fully believed, back then, that Kikyou planned on staying _with_ Inuyasha for the long haul. That she was just with him for his money, yes, but that because of his money, she would never leave him. So if she made him happy, and he was so in love with her, then who was _she_ to get in the way?

And now that Kikyou had revealed her true colors? The _last_ thing Inuyasha needed was to know of her own feelings for him. She would be there for him as a _friend;_ that was all it could ever be.

"Oh kami," she said then, as she just realized something very important. "Tonight's the new moon."

"Crap," Sango cursed under her breath, the taijiya not having remembered that when she'd talked Miroku into trying to get Inuyasha to join them for dinner again. "No wonder he turned down going out for his favorite food."

Kagome nodded.

"He hates his human emotions on a _good_ night. It's no wonder he doesn't want to be seen in public when he'll probably be an emotional wreck."

Not that he should really be left all alone while he was an emotional wreck, either.

"Maybe we should all just show back up at his place after sunset with ramen and bento boxes," the miko suggested then. "If we gang up on him, but from a place of love, he probably won't turn us away once his emotions have risen to the surface."

"Good idea," Sango agreed.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

.

.

*knock knock*

No response.

*knock knock knock*

"Go away," came the muffled reply.

"No can do!" Miroku replied cheerfully, raising his voice a little to compensate for their hanyou friend's temporary hearing loss.

Some more muffled words sounded from the other side of the closed door, at least half of them curse words, but then after a moment the door cracked open, revealing a black-haired Inuyasha wearing a plain white t-shirt and red sweatpants.

 _Is he even aware he's wearing traditional miko colors, or did he actually do that on purpose?_ Miroku wondered, although he knew better than to say anything about it out loud.

"Hope you're hungry!" he said instead, maintaining his exaggeratedly cheerful demeanor as he, Sango and Kagome each held up bags containing to-go containers of food.

Sighing and rolling his eyes, part of Inuyasha felt like slamming the door in their faces, but on the other hand, he'd hardly eaten anything in weeks, and while his hanyou metabolism could take the neglect, now that he was human he was _starving_. He also felt tremendously grateful in that moment to realize he had friends like them, who knew he was hurting and refused to let him suffer in silence.

 _Gods damn it all, I'm_ _not_ _gonna fucking start crying in front of them_ , he chastised himself before begrudgingly stepping aside and letting them enter his dimly lit apartment.

He'd only turned on one small lamp in the corner of the living room to prevent himself from stubbing his toe or any other such idiotic nonsense now that he was both night blind _and_ easily damaged.

Physically. He was now easy to damage physically. Turned out he'd been easy to damage emotionally even as a hanyou. Who'd have thunk it?

"I guess I'll eat the food, 'cause it's not like I actually wanna let myself starve to death," he told them then, his way of saying thank you, as everyone pulled out their containers of food after having left their shoes in the entryway before making their way over to the kitchen. "While I can say I wish I was dead, you guys know that's not _really_ true," he admitted then. "And before you worry about it too much, yeah, I'm planning on dragging my ass back to class when school starts, but guys, she really fucked me up, so don't expect me to get over it that quickly."

Since Miroku had managed to get the details out of him shortly after they'd first found out about the breakup, plus when Kagome had confronted Kikyou about breaking his heart she had gladly _enlightened_ Kagome as to what her real reasons had been, which a spitting mad Kagome had shared with Sango, nobody could really blame Inuyasha for needing time to get over this intense of a heartbreak.

"All we want is for you to eat something, and maybe, just maybe, for five or possibly ten minutes, something else could occupy your thoughts," Kagome said then, and damn that girl for being so sweet but Inuyasha couldn't help but smile as he looked her way and saw the sincerity in her blue-gray eyes.

While one would expect that he'd become closest to Miroku, and indeed he would tell the houshi certain _guy things_ that he wouldn't discuss with the women, overall if he really had to pick one of them Inuyasha would say that he felt like Kagome was his best friend out of the trio.

Just like Kikyou, it had also been hard for Kagome as a young girl, developing miko powers when her three best school friends Yuka, Eri and Ayumi had not been reiki users. When Kagome's family had registered her with the spiritualists and she'd needed to start taking special training classes, her friends hadn't understood what'd made Kagome so special and had actually accused her of _thinking_ she was special and _better_ than them just because she was from a shrine family, when the truth was she'd just been born a certain way and she couldn't help being who or what she was. On top of that, it had also been hard on Kagome after she'd lost her father, and none of her school friends at that time had understood what it was like losing a parent, either.

Even he couldn't really say he understood that level of pain, but at least he understood feeling isolated because nobody understood the pain of what you were going through. He understood the pain of being alone and misunderstood.

That had been what he and Kikyou had originally had in common, and while maybe it should've bothered him to notice those similarities in Kagome as well, to know she was also a miko, as if all miko were supposed to be bitches in his eyes now thanks to what Kikyou had done to him, Inuyasha in no way held Kagome's similarities to Kikyou against her and indeed he was still grateful that it also meant _he_ and her had those same things in common, as well.

Fortunately, Kagome had met and befriended Sango during junior high. While the taijiya had no measurable reiki she had been trained from early childhood to be youki sensitive, so she could sense demonic auras just like a reiki user, and on top of that she'd lost her mother at a young age, her father raising her and her younger brother alone as opposed to Kagome's mother and grandfather raising her and Souta. Inuyasha was glad to know that Kagome had found such a genuine friend in Sango. He'd also learned that Sango had met Miroku through Kagome, since he had been in her reiki training classes. Kagome had been friendly enough with Miroku but he'd originally only been a school acquaintance until he and Sango had hit it off and then the three of them had started hanging out together. The trio had been inseparable ever since, and that they had so easily welcomed he and Kikyou into their group...

 _Damn it, trying_ _not_ _to think about her_... Inuyasha mentally scolded himself, belatedly realizing he'd slipped up more than once already.

That they had welcomed _him_ into their group, were in fact _still_ friends with him even now that Kikyou was out of the picture, that really meant a lot to him, and he told them so in that moment.

Kagome smiled reassuringly as the more emotional, human Inuyasha told them just how much their friendship really meant to him.

"We will always be here for you, no matter what," Kagome vowed, nodding her head in conviction, and smiling a little, Inuyasha nodded back.

With that out of the way it was time to eat, but Inuyasha being the informal guy that he was, didn't go for the whole dining table nonsense, not that his apartment was really big enough for one anyway. Sure, he could've afforded a bigger apartment, but why? He was in college and he'd wanted the college experience. Well, aside from juggling his studies alongside a part-time job, at least. He was grateful to have been spared _that_ experience. He'd actually offered to pay everyone's rent in the very beginning, too, before Kikyou had broken up with him, but aside from Kikyou eagerly taking him up on his offer the others had outright refused, telling him that that was just too much to accept and that while they appreciated it, they would take care of their own rent. There was no way Kikyou was ever going to be able to convince him that Miroku, Sango and Kagome were also just using him for his money when they'd each turned down free rent, each of them having to pick up a part-time job of sorts in order to earn their own money.

Fortunately, Miroku's uncle Mushin owned a restaurant. It was one of those creepy ones with young waitresses dressed as school girls that were frequented by dirty old men, but Miroku washed dishes in the back and even though he could appreciate the waitress'...uniforms...he truly only had eyes for Sango. As for Sango, she'd merely gotten hired by her own father to start working at their family's training center for taijiya. Coming from a long line of taijiya, Sango had known all along that her career would involve training the next generation of slayers. Kagome, likewise, had picked up part-time work at her family shrine on the weekends. Her mother had been the one to tell her she shouldn't over work herself, telling her that she could just help out around the shrine rather than stressing over getting some random waitressing job somewhere. She probably didn't really work enough hours to make enough money to pay her rent and other monthly bills, but the Higurashi Shrine did fairly well for itself and Kagome's mother wasn't about to let her baby girl starve, always making sure Kagome had enough of a monthly allowance to get by. Kagome had accepted only because she'd vowed to herself that she'd pay her mother back after she graduated and finally got herself a _real_ job, working as an instructor in a school for reiki users.

Inuyasha, too, would be joining the workforce after college, helping his father run their company just like his older half-brother Sesshoumaru was already doing. He might even move to the youkai district where Sesshoumaru lived to be closer to the Taisho building, although Sesshoumaru didn't much appreciate his existence so perhaps not. But even if he chose to stay in the human city, and he just might in order to be near his mother, he'd definitely be upgrading his living space after graduation. In the meantime, though, a modest college student apartment similar in design to his friends' places was really all he needed to get by, and to their credit none of them had ever even questioned him about it.

They felt right at home in his tiny hole in the wall, as was demonstrated in that moment when everyone grabbed their bento boxes and cups of ramen and headed over into the living room to sit in front of the TV, even though that device remained turned off for the time being. Miroku, Sango and Kagome squeezed together on the couch, in that order, with Inuyasha sitting in his side chair that was closest to Kagome's side of the couch, their soup cups all on the coffee table to cool some while they kept their bento boxes on their laps as they ate, sprinkling in random bits of conversation between bites.

They talked about school, some, while specifically avoiding any mention of the martial arts circle all five of them shared. Joining the same circle had seemed like a good idea back at the beginning of the school year, when they'd all managed to get into the same collage together, as had been everyone's goal. Less serious than a club, where they'd have to study all the time and would do competitions with other teams, their informal circle only practiced a couple of days a week and the rest of the time everyone just got together to socialize. Of course, Inuyasha had never felt particularly comfortable during those outings since not everyone in their circle seemed as eager to befriend a hanyou as Miroku, Sango and Kagome had been, but he had still gone to at least a few of them, so long as his friends were going. Their whole circle was _supposed_ to be partying it up on the beach this summer, but Kagome, Sango and Miroku had definitely not felt like participating without him, so none of them had gone. With the way Kikyou was trying to score herself a new man they were sure their circle had heard about the breakup, and they also knew the four of them went way back, so Kagome and the others suspected that nobody from their circle would really blame them for skipping out on the summer fun, all things considered.

Kagome actually wondered if Kikyou was going to quit their circle when the second semester started. Under normal circumstances, if it had been a civil breakup and Inuyasha and Kikyou were still friends, then it wouldn't be awkward, but since their breakup had been the opposite of civil Kagome really hoped that Kikyou would do the right thing and bow out. To stay would almost be like she was staying on purpose, just to bask in his misery, or maybe to goad him into dropping out himself, losing some quality time with his other friends as a result.

But they were _not_ there to discuss Kikyou, so in that moment Kagome tried to keep her talk of classes completely neutral, centered on the subjects she was studying and her own problems. She was still struggling in math, for starters. She actually might not have passed her college entrance exams if it hadn't been for their help. She tried to joke about how mathematically illiterate she was just to lighten the mood and keep the topic of conversation away from Inuyasha's heartache, but it didn't do any good since Inuyasha's mind couldn't venture too far away from thoughts of his ex for very long, regardless of the subject.

Sighing, Inuyasha sat his bento down on the coffee table next to his ramen before meeting his friends' eyes.

"You know what I really hate?" he said out of nowhere, completely changing the subject away from Kagome's math problems. "I hate the thought of letting her know how badly she's hurt me. I actually saw her a couple of days ago when I braved going to the store," he revealed, Miroku cringing at the news because he'd been wondering what it was that had made Inuyasha extra cranky that day. "Our eyes locked and I know my pain was easy to read, and the bitch fucking _grinned_ at me. She grinned! Like she was pleased with herself." He was so upset he was visibly shaking. "What the fuck is that?" he asked, trying to calm back down.

His eyes also started to tear up, but grumbling under his breath about stupid human nights and stupid human emotions made even worse on said nights, he roughly scrubbed at his eyes and kept talking, his friends all politely ignoring his perceived weakness as they put their bento boxes down as well to give him their undivided attention.

"I don't think I'm actually going to be able to get over what she did to me for a long time, but I don't want to let _her_ know that," he continued, sounding determined. "So if I can't really 'snap out of it' as they say by the time school starts back up then I've decided I'm going to at least _pretend_ I'm over her during the day while we're all together, and I want you guys to help me out with that."

"Of course. We'll be happy to help," Sango answered right away, smiling understandingly.

"And who knows?" Miroku chimed in. "While you're pretending to have a good time you just might accidentally really feel happy for a minute or two," he teased.

Inuyasha cracked a half grin.

"Yeah, maybe." He didn't sound too convinced.

"I know it seems impossible now," Kagome said then, "and there's no hurry, if you don't think you're going to feel ready to get back out there for quite a while yet, but eventually, the pain will lessen, and then one day, when you're ready, you'll be able to find a woman who really loves you."

Inuyasha snorted at that, completely missing the curious look Sango sent Kagome's way.

"That's the thing, though," the temporarily human hanyou said, sounding utterly defeated. "I'd probably be able to just accept that Kikyou was a stupid bitch and move on more quickly if she'd been full of shit, but she was _right_." He sighed. "Nobody will ever _really_ love me."

Kagome opened her mouth to disagree but his shake of his head had her holding her tongue.

"I'm not stupid," he argued, knowing Kagome had been about to tell him what a great guy he was and how anyone would be lucky to have him, blah blah blah. "I know it's theoretically _possible_ some woman out there wouldn't mind being with a hanyou. Hell, my best bet would probably be with a female hanyou, actually. But we're few and far between, and _most_ humans _and_ youkai are gonna see me the way Kikyou sees me, as a disgusting freak of nature. So while it might technically be possible someone could love me, the odds are low that I'll ever find her, and you can't tell me _that's_ not true."

Kagome closed her eyes, silently grateful for his temporary loss of senses because if he'd had his inu-youkai sense of smell in that moment he'd have been able to scent the tears she was trying hard not to let fall.

"It's an unfortunate reality that many people are against the intermixing of humans and youkai, it's true," Sango relented, sensing that Kagome needed a moment before she'd be able to respond. It _was_ true that a lot of people felt that way about hanyou and it would be stupid to deny it. Inuyasha had a point. "But I'm sure there are more open minded people out there than you realize," she added then, because she also believed that _that_ was true.

"Oh, sure," Inuyasha answered sarcastically. "Maybe I can actually find myself a gold digger willing to overlook my flaws."

"Just stop it," Kagome finally snapped, earning all eyes on her. Fortunately, the dim lighting helped to conceal her sudden blush. "I just mean..." She cleared her throat. "It...it hurts, hearing you say such things about yourself."

"Yes," Miroku immediately agreed. "We're your friends and _we_ don't care about your heritage in the slightest."

"To me, you're not a _hanyou_ ," Kagome added, blushing a little darker. "You're just Inuyasha."

Sighing, Inuyasha smiled a little. It was small, but at least it lifted up both sides of his mouth that time.

"Thanks," he said, meeting Kagome's eyes for a moment before also nodding at Sango and Miroku. "I needed that."

"We'll always be here for you, no matter what," Sango reiterated.

"I'm glad," he answered.

"So we'll definitely do whatever we can to help you carry on during class as if you're no longer hurting," Miroku stated. "And maybe, if I can prove you wrong by finding a girl who'd be interested in dating you, a rebound would actually do you some good," he added, waggling his eyebrows in an attempt at using his usual perverted humor to lighten the mood.

"Miroku!" Sango chastised, Kagome also about to let him have it, but then the sound of Inuyasha actually chuckling a little bit earned everyone's attention.

"I can always count on you to be _your_ self," Inuyasha said, wiping a tear he wasn't sure was from mirth or grief. "But if Sango can put up with you then maybe you're right, maybe I _do_ have a chance, after all."

Smiling a little at the sudden optimism in his tone, Kagome was just about to reach for her ramen when Inuyasha spoke back up with, "Actually, you've just given me a great idea."

"Oh?" Miroku asked, genuinely curious.

Inuyasha nodded.

"While I'm definitely not ready to _really_ date again, I should try to pretend that I am, while on campus I mean, because that'd be an even better _fuck you_ to Kikyou if she thinks I'm not only over our breakup and am happy again in my daily life but I'm _really_ over our breakup, if you know what I mean."

It was Miroku who chuckled that time.

"The only problem is," Inuyasha continued, "I can't just fake it but actually go on a real date if the girl doesn't know I'm faking it, you know? I can't do that to anybody. I can't use a woman like that. So I guess what I need maybe really is a gold digger, but someone who'd be willing to go along with a ruse. I could pay her off to just _pretend_ to be my girlfriend. Maybe I could even call up one of those companies where you can pay people to do that sort of thing. It'd be better if she went to our college, though..." he trailed off, as if trying to formulate the details of his master plan to mask his pain from Kikyou.

Kagome listened, enthralled, mostly because a hanyou Inuyasha would've never been this talkative. Don't get her wrong, she loved him as a hanyou, but there was something extra special about seeing this fully human side of him, too. This part of him was always there, even while hanyou, but his gruffer youkai instincts kept it suppressed. She didn't think the human him was the 'real' him in terms of his physical form, and she was quite attracted to his physical form while hanyou, even including what she now knew regarding the part of him she'd never seen, but it was like the human him was his real _soul_ , the barriers all knocked down and his vulnerabilities bared before her. It took her a minute to remember that Sango and Miroku were sitting right on the other side of her as she watched him; they weren't alone.

That didn't prevent her from saying what she had to say, however.

"I'll do it."

"What?" he asked, surprised.

"Kagome?" Sango questioned at the same time, Miroku remaining silent, contemplating.

"I'll pretend to be your girlfriend," Kagome elaborated, dutifully ignoring the way she could feel Sango's eyes boring into the back of her head as she sat somewhat twisted on the couch to face Inuyasha more fully. "And you don't have to _pay_ me, either," she added. "If you feel like that would be the final show of really getting back at her, because she seemed happy to see you miserable, then I agree, letting her see you _happy_ would be the best revenge. Even if she doesn't really care one way or the other, you still don't want to let her know how sad you really are, and I totally get that, so I'll help you in any possible way that I can, including this."

"You...you really mean that?" he asked her, looking both stunned and as happy as any of them had seen him in the last three weeks.

"Absolutely," Kagome answered. "It would probably be the most believable scenario, anyway," she added, wondering if she was about to say too much but hoping she could get away with it. "If you just randomly all of a sudden had some different girlfriend at the start of the semester, especially if she doesn't even go to Tama University, then Kikyou would probably smell the deception. Even if she figured it was just a guess she'd probably try to call your bluff, accuse you of just paying the woman off. Hell, she'll probably accuse you of paying _me_ off, too. She already accused us of just being friends with you for your money. But it'd still be the most believable to everyone _else_ if you and I were to get together, since we already know each other and, as your friend, I'd have been comforting you in your time of need."

"That's true," Sango chimed in then, deciding to help her friend out. Help _both_ of her friends out. "In all the sappy romance stories we girls like to read, that's a common theme," she said, phrasing it that way on purpose to help keep up the illusion that they were just plotting out something fake.

"Indeed," Miroku agreed, the houshi also quick on the uptake. "You two could build it up slowly," he said, before locking eyes with Inuyasha for a moment. "When school first starts back up, you should already act over the breakup, just generally speaking, but it's okay to be a _little_ down, because you're lonely now. You just don't want to seem like your heart is still broken in a million pieces, even if it is, so try to act a _little_ sad but mostly over it."

"Sounds good," Inuyasha agreed with a nod.

He couldn't be _too_ happy, because then everyone would know he was obviously faking it and that would defeat the purpose of faking it. So a melancholy attitude would be best, Miroku was right. He would act like he was over it for the most part, and definitely over _Kikyou_ , but it still just sucked, just generally speaking.

"Openly wanting to help you get fully back to your old self again, the four of us should immediately all start hanging out after class, either at the arcade or the mall or _somewhere_ , and then you and me can let our 'relationship'develop from there," Kagome added with a playful wink.

"How..." He wasn't sure how to phrase it. It was rather embarrassing, after all, and especially considering the reason why Kikyou had broken up with him in the first place, but he needed to know. He cleared his throat. "How far are you willing to go? Just so I know," he asked. He wouldn't complain if Kagome wanted to pretend she was saving herself for marriage or something as a means of avoiding-

"We should build it up slowly so it seems more realistic, and not like you were using me as a one-night-stand or something," she said unabashedly, interrupting his thoughts. "But eventually, we can pretend that we're intimate, if that's what you want."

How she'd managed to say all that with a straight face, Kagome had no idea, but the way Inuyasha's face erupted into a deep crimson blush had her giggling behind her hand.

"I...I really appreciate you being willing to...to go along with something like that," Inuyasha told her shyly. "You don't know how much that means to me."

 _You don't know what it means for me, either,_ Kagome thought, but she didn't dare let her mixed feelings show, lest he mistakenly think she was having any doubts. The only thing she was worried about was whether or not she'd be able to remember they were a _pretend_ couple. She'd hate to accidentally take things a bit too far and freak him out. But the last thing she wanted to do was risk ruining their friendship, so she was fairly confident she'd be able to pull this off, or she wouldn't have offered. She could pretend that she was only pretending to be in love him. He'd never know.

With their plans for getting back at Kikyou figured out, Sango and Miroku confident that while pretending to be happy Inuyasha would inevitably end up actually feeling happy again while Kagome was really looking forward to throwing their 'relationship' in Kikyou's face no matter how fake it secretly was, all four friends got back to their food feeling much more optimistic for the days ahead.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The last few days of summer break were spent perfecting the details of their plan. They didn't go so far as to actually write a script, so everything they said to one another would be improv, in a way, but they knew generally speaking the sort of things they were supposed to say. They knew the direction they wanted to take things in, and what the end game would ultimately be.

When that first day of school was upon them Inuyasha handled his part like a pro, walking into school alone, head held high. He didn't know at first who knew about their breakup or who didn't, or who would even care, but pretty soon his ears clued him in when the whispers started. Some people wondered where Kikyou was, because he'd always driven her to class first semester, while others had already seen her arrive before him, in some other man's car. Well good for her. He was just glad he didn't share his first class of the day with her. In fact, he didn't share _any_ of his classes with Kikyou because she was only enrolled in miko-related courses, but he didn't share his firstclass of the day with anyone else, either, since he was studying business management, so he was on his own as he headed into the classroom and took a seat.

Another reason to not let Kikyou get him down was his grades. He needed to do well in school order to be able to help with his father's company. Even though they were rich the money certainly didn't grow on trees. It was his responsibility to either join the family business as a whole or create his own successful branch of it, so knowing it was important he tried his absolute best to put thoughts of broken hearts out of his mind, trying to absorb what he could for his education's sake. When class was over he wandered around campus not socializing with anyone while he waited out the hour gap he had between classes, but he tried to make sure he didn't look like too much of a wreck.

His next class, Human/Youkai Relations, he shared with Sango. It was more of a history lesson than a modern social studies class containing any pertinent guidelines one might've found useful in that day and age, but being a hanyou he'd been curious, and coming from a long line of taijiya Sango had felt a familial obligation to take the course. She was fresh from work and smelled of sweat. Her family training center, a dojo of sorts specifically for taijiya related techniques, opened bright and early and she'd just spent the last four hours with her students before changing gears to become the student herself.

Approaching him before their professor arrived, Sango asked him how he was feeling, her concern for him genuine even though she dutifully pretended for the sake of eavesdroppers that their conversation during the new moon never took place. He replied accordingly, that it still hurt, a little, but he was getting over it.

"Some women are just bitches," he said. "No offense."

"None taken," she laughed, since she agreed with him.

He continued then, saying he knew that he needed to just put their breakup behind him and get on with the rest of his life. When she asked him, then, if he'd like to join her, Miroku and Kagome for lunch at Hungry Ninja Noodles, he readily agreed, saying he definitely wasn't going to let a little thing like Kikyou turning out to be a gold digging bitch keep him from hanging out with his _real_ friends.

ooo

Trying to keep her cool and not look like a giddy idiot, Kagome was undeniably eager to see Inuyasha at the local noodle shop across from campus that just about everyone from their university went to for lunch, and sometimes also breakfast and dinner. She'd muddled through her math class the best she could that morning but she knew she'd probably done worse than she otherwise would have since she hadn't been able to keep her thoughts off a certain inu-hanyou. Of course, Kagome knew she had to take things slowly, stick to the plan, and she dutifully kept reminding herself that even after they seemingly became boyfriend and girlfriend it was only going to be for show. They probably wouldn't be spending very much if any time alone together after school. But she was still looking forward to spending more time with him during the day between classes, and she was _really_ looking forward to seeing him smile again. Yes, it would be forced, at first, but just like Miroku believed, Kagome was also confident that in and around pretending to have a good time Inuyasha would actually start having a good time for real. Pretending to laugh was bound to lead to actual laughter _eventually_. His moments of genuine happiness would be fleeting at first, she was sure, as his painful memories continued to linger right under the surface, reminding him of why he was miserable, but she believed that slowly but surely he'd be able to move on and no longer need to fake his happiness in order to live his daily life.

What that would mean for the two of them and their fake relationship she had no clue, but she logically decided to just not think about it. She had a mission, which was to slowly build up their fake relationship and then maintain that fake relationship for however long he wanted to keep up the facade. If and when he wanted to have a fake breakup she knew it would obviously be a civil one which would allow them to remain friends, and then the ruse would be over and the four of them would continue to be the best of friends, she hoped, for the rest of their lives. If, on the other hand, he wanted to start a _real_ relationship...

That forbidden line of thinking was thankfully brought to an abrupt halt when she sensed the rapid approach of a very strong, very _familiar_ demonic aura, and then looking up, she smiled as Sango, Miroku and Inuyasha entered the noodle shop and, spotting where she was sitting, came over and had a seat at the booth for four she'd been saving for them. Sango sat beside Kagome on her right, Inuyasha sliding in on the opposite side to sit across from Kagome so that Miroku could sit at his left, across from his girlfriend.

"So glad to see you're feeling better," she said as way of greeting as she met Inuyasha's eyes, making sure to keep her eagerness in check.

"Yeah, well..." He shrugged. "Can't just mope around for the rest of my life," he said. "That'd be stupid."

"Time really does heal all wounds," Kagome agreed with a nod.

"And whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger, ne?" he teased, cracking a smile when he noticed a couple of other students from Tama U glancing their way. In fact, he was pretty sure they were in one of Kikyou's miko classes, sensing faint traces of reiki from both girls.

"That's the spirit," Miroku said with a grin, the houshi also having noticed Momiji and Botan sitting a couple of booths down.

"And what better way to celebrate your new lease on life than with your favorite food?" Sango chimed in then, flagging down their server.

"Welcome back," the waitress said to Inuyasha as she approached their table.

Even she'd noticed his absence as of late, since most of the student body had continued frequenting their noodle shop even during summer break. A white-haired hanyou was kind of hard to miss, after all.

"Thanks," he replied, offering her a polite smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "I'll have my usual."

"Two beef ramen cups," she acknowledged with her own fake smile, not that she really had anything against the hanyou. She just didn't like her job. "And for you?" she asked Miroku next.

After Miroku, Sango and Kagome also placed their orders and the waitress went to get their drinks, they continued to discuss Inuyasha's desire to put his painful breakup behind him and get on with his life. He was both acting and being completely honest when he said he wanted to move on, because while he sincerely believed what he'd told his friends the night of the new moon, that he wouldn't be able to heal from this pain for quite some time, he did legitimately _want_ to be able to put it behind him. The desire to heal was there, even if the wounds Kikyou had inflicted on him were worse than he was willing to admit publicly.

Or at least, they were worse than he was willing to admit to _her_.

If it weren't for Kikyou still being around he might've actually been okay with receiving the occasional looks of pity he would have probably received from other students if he'd just dragged himself to class every day, but it was the look Kikyou had given him at the local convenience store, not of pity but of smug satisfaction, that had made him bound and determined to at least _pretend_ he was over her until he finally, actually was.

"And before any of you ask, no, I don't still love her and I wouldn't take her back," he told his friends then, just as their waitress returned with their sodas.

It was true, too. He hadn't just said it for those eavesdropping bitches to overhear. Kikyou had completely crushed him, but in doing so, she'd shown him her true colors. If she ever hypothetically told him that she'd changed her mind, that she was willing to overlook his flaws and take him back, his response would be a resounding _fuck you_.

"Well that's good to hear," Miroku said. "Not that I would've _let_ you two get back together," he added, giving Inuyasha a friendly elbow to the side. "I wouldn't be much of a friend if I did."

"It's still hard to believe, sometimes," he said as their lunch arrived.

"Thank you," Sango said to their server before glancing back at Inuyasha. "What is?"

"That I have friends," he answered. "That you guys actually _want_ to be my friends, even after everything Kikyou said."

"We'll _always_ be your friends," Kagome emphasized.

Inuyasha met her eyes as he slurped his noodles, and even though their gaze only locked for the briefest of moments before she shyly looked down and resumed eating her own food, something in the look she'd given him in that moment gave him pause. It was similar to the looks Kikyou had given him in the beginning, but somehow...deeper. Shrugging it off after a moment, though, he knew well where their plan was headed, so if Kagome was already working on trying to look at him _like that_ while they were out in public, that just meant she was a really good actress...and a really good friend. He would never forget what she was willing to do for him now, in his time of need. She truly was his best friend, and he would be forever in her debt.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

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Over the course of the next two weeks everything went according to plan. They'd agreed that he and Kagome shouldn't start 'liking' each other _right_ away so they spent those first two weeks just acting like the best of friends they really were. The only thing Inuyasha was faking was his good mood, but they really were his best of friends, especially Kagome, so it wasn't like he didn't _want_ to hang out with them. They ate lunch together at Hungry Ninja Noodles every day, and as Miroku told his usual jokes, or as Kagome told Inuyasha a story about something that Miroku and Sango had done, the hanyou always laughed accordingly, as if he had no reason at all to feel down. He also didn't let his secretly sour mood interfere with his studies, because faking happiness or not, he did _not_ want to let Kikyou hurt his grades because school was _important._

So were extracurricular activities.

The two days a week their martial arts circle actually got together at school for practice was the best time for Inuyasha to show Kikyou that he was supposedly fully over his pain, since the stupid bitch had _not_ quit the activity and had looked just as smug as ever when she'd met his eyes from across the room that first time. He'd only given her a polite smile and nod in greeting, like he would do to a stranger on the bus, before promptly turning his back on her. Miroku had had to tell him later about the way her smug grin had immediately turned into a frown, which had definitely lifted his spirits. Knowing now that he could get to _her_ , practicing with their circle was now his favorite part of the school day.

Today was no exception.

"Don't think I'm gonna go easy on ya," he told Miroku as the two men prepared to engage.

"Not at all," Miroku quipped. "But if you are allowed to use your demonic strength then I am allowed to use my own unique skills," he countered.

"There is to be _no_ youki and _no_ reiki," Renkotsu, one of the senior students, interjected, glaring at both boys.

"It's not his youki I'm worried about," Miroku replied, but with a friendly glint in his eyes that let everyone know he was only teasing Inuyasha. It wasn't exactly the hanyou's fault he was stronger than all of the other students combined.

"Don't worry," Inuyasha told him then, knowing that his friend wasn't really worried at all. "I could no more _accidentally_ hurt you than you could _accidentally_ hurt a kitten."

Miroku looked taken aback.

"Are you calling me a kitten?!"

"Guys, less talkie more flippy," Jakotsu, another senior student in their circle, said then. He winked at Inuyasha.

Grinning back, in a way that showcased his fangs, Inuyasha flexed his claws and charged, causing Miroku to raise his eyebrows in surprise, the houshi barely having time to register what they were supposed to be doing before Inuyasha was upon him. Instincts kicked in, then, and Miroku successfully grabbed Inuyasha's arm, turned, and flipped his opponent over his shoulder using his own momentum. Inuyasha landed harmlessly on his back on the large tatami mat they'd both been standing on, completely unfazed.

"Good, very good," their unofficial leader Bankotsu said then, as Inuyasha bounced back up onto his feet. "Now, Inuyasha, think you can handle throwing Miroku?"

Inuyasha wasn't offended, much. It was a fair question, for a human, and he'd grown accustomed to being on the receiving end of such uncertainties. It wasn't that Bankotsu was unaware of his superior strength and actually thought he might have a difficult time of it. He was apprehensive regarding his ability to _control_ himself, afraid he really might accidentally hurt Miroku. Granted, he could hurt Miroku rather easily if he were utterly careless, just like a human could hurt a kitten if they were equally violent, but tugging on a human's arm, to him, wasn't like a human trying to delicately open the wings of a butterfly or anything else just as sensitive. Humans weren't _that_ fragile. He knew how much force to use.

 _Inuyasha smash!_ he thought sarcastically, suppressing a snorted chuckle.

While he _felt_ like just sighing, rolling his eyes and nodding his head, he threw on his best smirk since everyone, including Kikyou, was watching. Striking a casual pose he asked, "That depends. How far you want me to throw him?"

That earned some snickering from the women (and Jakotsu), save for Kikyou, and rolling his own eyes, Bankotsu just said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get in position."

Nodding, Inuyasha got ready, and when Miroku charged at him he did the maneuver flawlessly, flinging Miroku around and onto his back without so much as nicking him with his claws.

Not that Miroku himself had been worried for one minute.

"Okay, now it's the women's turns," Abi said.

Before either of them could risk getting paired up with Kikyou, Sango and Kagome immediately buddied up together. While throwing the bitchy miko would've undoubtedly been fun – hell, they'd both be willing to wait in line for the privilege – neither of them wanted to let Kikyou throw them afterwards.

Fortunately, Kikyou felt the same way and steered clear of the other miko and taijiya, instead sticking to her own little substitute clique from within their circle since her other friends weren't around. Abi and Kagura were completely on her side. They were against the notion of dating youkai or hanyou and actually hadn't started to like Kikyou until after she'd broken up with him and confessed to them that she'd only been with him for his money. Yura had been attracted to his exotic looks, at first, loving his hair and not so much minding the ears, but after Kikyou had revealed what had been her _tipping point_ in deciding she just couldn't stomach being with him, Yura had agreed as well. They thought of Inuyasha as a youkai and thought he should be with his own kind, not comprehending that despite his youkai _looks_ , the youkai of the world would consider him human for having been birthed by one, and would tell him the same.

In that moment, the four women hung out in their back corner of the training room while Kikyou secretly kept an eye on what was going on with Inuyasha and the others. She didn't like that he seemed completely over their breakup. Why should he get to move on with his life as if nothing had happened after stealing over three years of _her_ life? All that hard work landing the perfect, richest boyfriend, down the drain because he'd concealed from her just how much of a mutant he really was. And she'd yet to find another man that was marrying material. She'd gone on a few dates, but it turned out the guys who'd been flirting with her before weren't willing to pay up, and so far the only guy she _had_ thought would make a good match for her had turned _her_ down because he'd thought she was tainted for having slept with a hanyou. Telling him that she hadn't slept with Inuyasha, that she'd broken up with him after discovering how disgusting he was, hadn't helped her case because to him, she'd basically admitted that she _would_ have slept with Inuyasha had he looked more human downstairs. As far as that guy had been concerned, it should have been the demonic blood flowing through the freak's veins that turned her off to him, not the color of his junk.

So basically, Kikyou was alone, now, temporary though she hoped it was, unless she settled for a man with less money, of course, but that was _so_ not happening. Yet, every time she contemplated taking Inuyasha back, which she was sure he would do in a heartbeat no matter what Momiji and Botan had claimed to overhear, she threw up a little in her mouth at the thought, so that was definitely not an option, either.

How _dare_ he continue to have fun with his so-called _friends_ while _she_ had been forced to get a part-time job as a waitress when he'd stopped paying her rent?! It wasn't fair!

Ignoring it as Abi and Yura took turns flipping each other, Kikyou continued to gaze across the room and watched Inuyasha as he watched Sango flip Kagome, her eyes narrowing at the sight.

Aware of but choosing to ignore their audience, Sango and Kagome got right down to business. Sango had the upper hand, of course, since coming from a long line of taijiya meant she'd already had plenty of martial arts training growing up. In fact, she was the reason the rest of them had originally decided to pick this circle as their extracurricular activity in the first place, since she'd wanted to do it for fun and Miroku had definitely been up for anything that involved his girlfriend showing off her mad skills. He'd also thought that maybe he could actually learn a thing or two, since the self-defense classes he'd taken as a part of his houshi training had revolved around using a shakujo. Even Inuyasha, who didn't really _need_ to learn human self-defense techniques since he had both his brute strength as well as his youki to defend himself if need be, had been interested in picking up some elegant and _peaceful_ methods of self-defense, just for the hell of it. Kikyou had acted like she hadn't cared much one way or the other, at the time, but had told Inuyasha in her sweet, fake girlfriend-y way that she wanted to join whatever circle he and their friends joined, so that was her original reason for being there. Kagome, meanwhile, had been interested in learning some techniques she could use against fellow humans, like Miroku, should such a situation ever present itself where that knowledge would be needed. She'd spent a good chunk of her life learning to harness and control her reiki, and she was an expert shot with the bow those days, but those skills would do her little good if she were ever attacked by strange men in the middle of the night.

Not that she ever planned on being in a situation where she _could_ be attacked by strange men in the middle of the night, but that was beside the point.

Blinking up at Sango from her position lying flat on her back, it took Kagome a moment to realize she needed to get back up and ready to throw Sango now. Chuckling at the miko's dazed expression, Sango charged, and Kagome made a grab for her arm and shoulder as she'd been shown, tugging as she turned, intending on throwing Sango over her shoulder, but nothing happened except Kagome almost losing her balance and bringing Sango down on top of her as they both stumbled forward and almost fell. Quickly letting go, Kagome managed to keep them both from going down.

"I'm sorry!" the miko apologized through her laughter as she turned to face her friend, the slayer giving her an amused _'what the hell was that?'_ look.

"Here, I'll show you," a chuckling Inuyasha said as he closed the gap between them, the rest of their circle not paying the foursome very much attention, except for Kikyou of course, who flipped Kagura and let Kagura flip her but then went right back to staring at Inuyasha and the others afterward.

Kagome hadn't even botched it on purpose, and Inuyasha knew that, but he'd immediately stepped up because he'd found it a perfect opportunity to work towards their future fake relationship, and besides, Bankotsu was busy helping another junior student at the moment and had completely missed Kagome's blunder. They didn't need Bankotsu, Inuyasha figured, since he knew how the technique worked. So did Sango, but he hadn't been about to let this opportunity pass him by.

"Mind if I flip you?" he asked the taijiya playfully, flashing a fang.

Smirking, knowing what Inuyasha was doing but also thinking it was a good idea, Sango readily agreed.

"Pay attention, Kagome," Inuyasha said then as he did the maneuver as slowly as possible. "You want to grip her right arm with your left hand here," he instructed, grabbing a fistful of Sango's uniform robe under the taijiya's elbow. "Then turn your body into hers like this," he added, turning himself towards his left, almost as if he were going to drape Sango over his back, "and then hook your right arm up and over her right shoulder."

Grabbing another fistful of robe, making sure to be extra careful of his claws, he bent over slightly while also bending his knees a little, Sango's lack of resistance making it easy to lift her up and over his right shoulder to land flat on her back.

"Now that's a sight I could get used to seeing," Miroku teased, earning a blush from Sango while Kagome snickered. She knew those two were sexually active now, but Sango was still extremely shy whenever Miroku made his typical, flirtatious comments.

"You both make it look so easy," she said to Sango and Inuyasha, the former accepting her boyfriend's outstretched hand as he helped her to her feet.

Kagome knew Inuyasha's youkai strength didn't really have anything to do with it since Sango could have flipped him just as easily.

"Guess I need more practice," she said.

Suddenly realizing that Kikyou was not-so-discreetly hanging on their every word, even though she didn't really get _why_ , Kagome quickly decided to take advantage of Inuyasha's sensitive hearing to concoct a plan on the fly.

Turning around under the guise of watching their other classmates continuing to flip each other using various arm throwing techniques, she positioned herself so that Kikyou wouldn't be able to see her lips moving as she whispered, "Inuyasha, don't act like you hear this, but I'm going to insult myself and I want you to praise my archery in response."

While his ear had involuntarily twitched at first he'd quickly played it off as he'd realized she was scheming with him, and as Kagome got her entire plan across it was only the briefest of looks from him as she turned back his way that let her know her message had been received and understood.

"I don't know if I'll ever be as good as them, though," she sighed despondently then, meeting his eyes with a sad expression as she gestured to the other students. Hey, if he could fake happiness then she could fake sadness. "I'm such an uncoordinated klutz," she added, sounding as if she really meant it.

Before either Sango or Miroku could say anything, since neither of them had heard her whispered plan, Inuyasha immediately chimed in with a rather harsh, "Nonsense," as he crossed his arms. Also making sure Kikyou couldn't see his face at his current angle, he winked at the houshi and taijiya to quickly fill them in on all they really needed to know. "You know how much coordination it takes to shoot a fucking bow?" he elaborated then, feeling Kikyou's eyes boring into the back of his head. "From what I hear, you were the best shot in your class," he added, which was 100% true.

"I can certainly vouch for that," Miroku chimed in then, the houshi indeed having picked up on the fact that Kagome's momentary and somewhat out of character self-deprecation had been staged.

But if they weren't just trying to give Inuyasha an opportunity to cheer Kagome up, either deliberately or inadvertently choosing a topic that also allowed them to praise Kagome's skills in a certain field above that of Kikyou's, then he was not about to let _them_ have all the fun.

"In fact, Kagome, if you signed up for the archery class they provide here for miko, I'm quite certain you would once again be at the top of the class," he added, not really trying to pressure her into joining the class although he was being completely honest in his assessment of her abilities.

Unlike the regular archery group at their school for non-reiki users, the class for miko focused equally on channeling reiki as well as aim and overall technique with a bow. Knowing Kikyou was in that class, and not wanting to join simply because she didn't want to see _the bitch_ any more than absolutely necessary, Kagome had the perfect reply to Miroku's statement.

"I suppose I _could_ join it, for fun, just like Sango wanted to join this circle for fun. She certainly doesn't need the practice, and neither do I, when it comes to the bow I mean. But the class here is really for people who are still learning, either how to shoot or how to focus their reiki, or both, and I think I would feel weird joining it since I don't actually need any help in either area."

 _Burn!_ Sango thought, the taijiya having to bite her lip to keep from laughing outright.

"Well then there, ya see?" Inuyasha continued, not missing a beat. "Even you admit how awesome you are at the bow, so how can you go thinking you're any kind of klutz? This is just new and different from what you're used to, but with enough practice, you'll get it."

"You really think so?" Kagome asked him hopefully, and for a moment, just a moment, he almost found himself getting lost in her stormy blue-gray eyes, until he recognized the almost completely hidden spark of amusement lying underneath the supposed desperation for reassurance.

 _Calm down you idiot, she's only acting_ , he quickly reminded himself, as he continued to play along by telling her he was positive she'd be able to master it eventually and that he'd be glad to help her with her training.

"Sango would probably be a better teacher than me, but she'll need somebody to throw, and as much as I'm sure she'd _love_ to toss her boyfriend around..." Both Sango and Miroku snickered at that. "...my youkai blood means it's about impossible for her to accidentally hurt me so I make the better choice when it comes to her, and your, practice dummy."

"You're a dummy all right," Kikyou muttered under her breath before turning and walking away with the other girls, Inuyasha's twitching ears revealing to his friends that he'd heard something, but he quickly shook his head at their inquisitive looks and continued on as if he hadn't heard anything.

He doubted Kikyou had intended for him to hear her. She'd sounded downright upset, which brought him immense pleasure, so there was no way she'd wanted to let him know she was suddenly in a pissy mood.

"We can get started this Sunday if you want, just for something to do," he said to Kagome and the others then.

He actually meant it, too. He was tired of moping around by himself when he wasn't in class. While the pain was still there, he simply wanted a distraction, something to help take his mind off of it, and helping Kagome get better at judo would be something he could focus on so that he _wasn't_ focusing on anything else.

"I'm going to take you up on that," Kagome replied, still playing her part. At the moment, she didn't really think he was serious, but then, neither had she been serious in her supposed belief of being unable to get the arm throwing technique in the first place. She was sure that if she and Sango practiced she'd be able to get better at it.

"In the meantime," Miroku chimed in then, "what do you say we get outta here and go hit the arcade since I don't have to work tonight? It's been too long."

While Inuyasha didn't really feel like it, he nonetheless agreed, knowing he both needed the distraction as well as it being a part of their plan to help him look as if he were over his heartache. "Sounds good," he said, with as much fake enthusiasm as he could muster.

He suddenly had a tremendous amount of respect for their school's theatre group.

As practice let out and everyone went to change back into their street clothes, after planning a get together for the following day for their entire group that on the fly Inuyasha said he would attend, which earned him pleased looks from at least some of his other classmates, hanyou and houshi headed into the men's changing area to get out of their robes while Kagome and Sango went into the women's changing room.

Inside the women's room, after changing back into their normal clothes, Kagome and Sango were just about to head out when the miko noticed their approaching company and nudged Sango to get her attention. As Kikyou and the others approached from across the room, it didn't take long before Kagome and Sango found themselves surrounded, backs to the wall with Kikyou standing boldly in front of them and Abi, Yura and Kagura backing Kikyou up. Meeting Sango's eyes, Kagome nodded when Sango's lips quirked up a little. They weren't afraid. Not in the slightest.

"I don't know who you two think you're fooling, besides Inuyasha of course, but it's obvious to me you're only pretending to be his friends, using him for his money like I was," Kikyou began almost conversationally. "So why don't you just admit it?"

"Because," Kagome answered slowly and plainly, as if speaking to a small child, "it's not true."

"We're actually _not_ pretending to be his friends," Sango chimed in. "We really _are_ his friends."

Abi looked completely confused by that declaration. "But that doesn't even make any sense," she said, as if unable to comprehend how they could possibly really be Inuyasha's friends. Whether that was because he was a hanyou, or a millionaire, Sango and Kagome weren't sure, but neither did they care.

"Oh, it makes sense for total losers to befriend another total loser," Kikyou said then, in a much snottier tone, waving her hand dismissively at Abi's comment before meeting Kagome's eyes. "I was trying to give you a chance to redeem yourselves, but if you're going to insist you're not just using the freak for his money then the only conclusion that leaves me with is that you guys are a band of freaks all sticking together."

Kagome shrugged. "Think whatever you like."

"Like that bullshit about you being at the top of your class in miko archery?" Kikyou sneered. "Yet _I_ never even saw you or Miroku _attend_ the reiki class at our high school."

 _That's because there are different levels and we were both placed in advanced_ , Kagome wanted to say, but instead she only shrugged again, before grinning. "I could give you a demonstration if you'd like."

Kikyou scoffed.

"I wouldn't want you to embarrass yourself."

"You mean like you're doing by trying to get a new boyfriend, but nobody'll take you because the whole school knows you're only a superficial gold digger?"

Sango had to bite her lip to keep from laughing, not just at what Kagome said, but also at the looks on Kikyou's friends faces. They looked taken aback, apparently having been under the impression that Kagome was a meek little thing easy to intimidate. Where Kikyou had gotten _that_ impression from Sango had no idea.

Of course, Kikyou was no meek little thing, either.

"Watch it, bitch," she spat.

Taking the high road, Kagome only rolled her eyes, before grabbing Sango's hand. "Come on," she said, "let's not keep the boys waiting." That said, since they were both already changed, Kagome led Sango straight through the would-be bullies and out of the women's dressing room.

Meeting up with Miroku and Inuyasha at the entrance to the school, they told the boys about their brief encounter with Kikyou and her cronies while they changed out of their school shoes and into their street shoes. Their story earned amused reactions from not only Miroku, but Inuyasha as well. He was pleased to hear from Sango how Kagome had handled herself, chuckling a little as he found himself wishing he could've been there to see Kikyou's face as she told her off.

"There's bound to be other times," Kagome said, almost sounding like she was looking forward to it, which had the hanyou laughing again. A real laugh, which was music to her hears.

They all headed out to the parking lot, then, and piled into Miroku's car, their destination the Shikon Arcade.

It was a massive building, three full stories of gaming madness. The first floor was filled primarily with first person shooters, beat 'em up games and car racing games, and contained the snack bar where you could grab a cheap bento or cup of noodles and enjoy a bite while watching your friends pummel each other. There was also a row of Dance Dance Revolutions against the back wall along with three different kinds of air hockey tables. The second floor was filled, wall to wall, with photo booths and the types of games that gave out prizes, like claw machines, and was where most of the younger kids and people who weren't hardcore gamers hung out. The third floor was split with half of the room dedicated to vintage arcade classics, including everything from Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros. to Q*bert and Centipede, and everything else in between. The other half of the room was filled with computers for online gaming, but good luck finding an available computer because that half of the room was nearly always filled to capacity.

Our friends didn't mind. They usually stuck to the first floor, and this time was no exception as Miroku and Sango immediately gravitated towards their favorite fighting game, while Inuyasha and Kagome headed to the nearby snack bar.

At first, Inuyasha automatically tried to pay for his friends' gaming, but Miroku shut it down.

"I don't want even the tiniest part of your mind able to argue with you that she might have possibly been right about us only befriending you for your money," Miroku said.

"But I _know_ that's not true," Inuyasha argued. "You guys were my friends before you even knew I _had_ any money."

"And we would continue to be your friends even if, suddenly and for whatever reason, you lost your fortune and became completely broke," Sango added, before Miroku promptly paid for her and his game play.

Sighing, Inuyasha let it go, but he wasn't about to let Kagome pull that same crap with him at the snack bar.

"You better not think I'm gonna let you buy your own ramen," he said, his tone of voice playful, as he snaked up behind her while she was placing her order.

Blushing cutely, which was _not_ a part of her acting, Kagome wordlessly conceded and stepped aside so that Inuyasha could add his own order on top of hers and pay for all of it.

"Thank you," she answered softly as they headed over to a table to sit down and eat while they watched Sango kick Miroku's ass again.

"One of these days I'm going to beat you," Miroku promised his girlfriend.

"Fat chance," she answered, as they each frantically pushed buttons, their characters trading punches.

"They're gonna be at it for a while, I think," Kagome said then as she slurped her noodles. "You wanna play something else instead of waiting?"

"Like what?"

Finishing his first cup of shrimp flavored ramen, Inuyasha moved on to his second.

"I dunno." She shrugged, looking around. "One of the racers? Something that'll give me a fighting chance."

"What? Don't want your ass handed to you in air hockey again?" he teased.

She giggled.

"Me trying to beat you at air hockey would be like you trying to beat me at archery."

He laughed again at that. They had been right, before. A few real fleeting moments of happiness _were_ sneaking their way in from time to time.

"Hey, I can't help it if I'm awesome," he answered smugly. He didn't even realize until after the words had left his mouth that the mindset of being _awesome,_ at _anything,_ directly contradicted the funk that Kikyou had put him into, thinking he was a disgusting freak of nature that no one could possibly love.

Immediately noticing his emotional slip of the tongue, instead of pointing it out by saying something sobering like reiterating the fact that he was, indeed, an awesome individual, Kagome acted as if his offhanded comment wasn't anything monumental worth praising and merely stuck _her_ tongue out at him, before then asking him which of the various street racing games he'd like to play. On the inside, though, it filled her heart with pride to hear him say something so positive about himself, even if it was only regarding his skill at air hockey, which, granted, was due in tremendous part to his inu-youkai heritage.

But to her, that was actually the point, and was what'd made the comment as special as it was. It would be one thing for him to acknowledge something good about himself _despite_ his youkai blood, but he had just acknowledged something about himself that was good _because_ of his youkai blood. Okay sure, it had only been about his skill level at a particular arcade game, but baby steps. She was now certain that she'd eventually be able to bring the old Inuyasha fully back to the surface for real, with no need for him to be faking his happy attitude.

"How about Muso's Motor Madness?" Inuyasha suggested then, also pretending his previous statement hadn't fazed him, even though he'd actually had a similar moment of reflection to Kagome's.

"Oh, you're _on,_ " the miko answered, getting up from her seat and tossing her empty ramen cup.

Following suit, Inuyasha tossed his two empty cups before following after Kagome to where a row of four car seats complete with steering wheels, gear shifts and pedals sat in front of four giant flat screens. It was a semi-miracle that the game was unoccupied at the moment. Sometimes there was a line of people waiting their turns but the arcade wasn't _that_ busy since it was the middle of the week. Not that they were complaining.

Putting their money into the machines – Kagome let Inuyasha pay for her game without much of a fuss – they sat down next to each other and gave each other mock glares while the computer counted down. Nobody joined them on the other two available cars so for this round, they were racing just the two of them. There were no computer controlled cars, that you raced against at least, and the game required at least two players because all four stations were synced together, so once the race began nobody else could join mid-race and if they put money in their game play would be suspended until the conclusion of the current race.

Not your typical car race, Muso's Motor Madness was an insane illegal street drag race type of adventure that let you choose between a handful of cars and driving characters before sending you through the craziest race track ever concocted. You started on the streets of downtown Tokyo, but shortcuts to your final destination included taking you straight through a shopping mall full of customers and a zoo full of animals. You didn't get _points_ for hitting anything, and in fact it slowed you down so nobody was supposed to _want_ to hit anything, but if you accidentally did, let's just say the graphics were not suitable for young children. Not that it bothered Kagome one bit. She wasn't delusional, and knew damn well the difference between a video game and real life. She'd accidentally crashed her car into a food cart once, sending patrons, noodles, and broken bits of wood flying everywhere; it had actually been rather hilarious but she would _never_ drive so recklessly in real life. One thing the game did have in common with real life, though, was that the computer generated pedestrians and cars not involved in the race were randomly generated and always changed with each race, so you could never memorize their locations. It really kept you on your toes.

Not only could you damage things (or people or animals) that you crashed into, it was even possible to cripple your own car, like if you crashed into the side of a building head on. It was impossible to kill your driver or make your car completely immobile but they'd both witnessed crashed cars that had had to be backed out of the hole they'd made in whatever building before barely hobbling along down the street, ensuring victory for the player with the intact car. The race was not timed and lasted until the first person crossed the predesignated finish line, so that was why the cars would still move no matter how comically damaged they became, so that the race would _eventually_ be over, since getting out and walking wasn't a command you could control. If your driver got ejected during a rollover he or she automatically got up, brushed themselves off, and got back in the car.

As a deterrent to screwing around in the game with no consideration to the people waiting their turn, there was a saved high score that was based on shortest race time, and _everyone_ wanted to beat the lowest race time to put their name next to the current high score. So even though most people took both optional shortcuts, through the shopping mall and zoo, that was because if you managed to get through from end to end _without_ crashing you were guaranteed a significant lead over anyone who chose the street route. It was nearly impossible to get through the mall and zoo without at least small crashes, though, so some people chose the easier route on the gamble that their opponent would screw up and lose their lead. Not that sticking to the street was really _easy_ since there were occasionally red lights to run and crosswalks full of people to avoid, just like in real life, and just like with the computer generated traffic and pedestrians, the traffic lights themselves were also unpredictable.

Kagome discovered that fact firsthand when a light she'd always been able to sail right through on green suddenly turned red before she got there. Down shifting, she zipped around the corner and managed the turn without side swiping anyone. She then changed lanes as quickly as she could and turned down another street to wind up heading in the same direction again, the little map in the bottom right corner of her screen showing her that she was once again headed in the right direction.

Deciding to stick to the streets this time around because they were at least _marginally_ easier, Kagome smirked when mild cursing coming from her opponent had her glancing at Inuyasha's screen just long enough to see that he'd chosen the shortcut through the mall and had accidentally crashed into a kiosk of some sort. Even his demonic reflexes were no match for the game's craftily placed obstacles. A few more crashes and he'd lose the lead the shortcut would have otherwise given him so Kagome made sure to pay _extra_ close attention to her own screen, to avoid any potential crashes herself. Another crashing sound followed by a quiet "Damn it" coming from her right had the miko giggling but she didn't glance at his screen again. She just might win this thing.

ooo

"Best two out of three?"

"Kagome..."

"Come on! I was _so close!"_ the miko complained playfully. Somehow, Inuyasha had managed to pass her _right_ before she'd crossed the finish line.

Laughing a little despite himself and shaking his head, Inuyasha pointed to the four friends he recognized from their college who were waiting their turn at the game.

"Oh."

Blushing a little, Kagome had gotten so caught up in the moment of it being just her and Inuyasha that she'd somehow forgotten they weren't the only ones in the arcade.

"You want a chance to get back at me, I'll fight you in Battle Birds of Paradise," he suggested then, smiling when her eyes lit up in genuine excitement.

"You're on!"

Battle Birds of Paradise was a simple, older style one or two player fighting game. You could fight the computer, or two people could fight each other, and your characters were identical, rather cartoonish looking Birds of Paradise, a type of monstrous youkai that went extinct centuries ago. There was really nothing to the game, you just kicked each other's asses, but the older game's somewhat sluggish response times, at least as far as Inuyasha was concerned, were enough of a hindrance that he couldn't use his lightning fast reflexes to give himself any kind of an edge. In other words, Kagome had a fighting chance.

They ended up playing three rounds with Kagome winning two of them. Sango and Miroku finished up their own game play in time to watch Kagome deliver the killing blow the first time, but when _Inuyasha_ asked _Kagome_ for best two out of three, neither Sango nor Miroku were about to say anything to alert the duo to their presence. Of course, hanyou and miko both knew they were there, but Inuyasha was actually having a good time, for once, and he didn't mind having an audience.

When Kagome won the third game all four friends headed back over to Muso's Motor Madness. They had to wait their turn, but it was well worth it. Miroku ended up winning that time, by a hair, Inuyasha getting passed up at the last second just like he'd previously done to Kagome. The miko had foolishly tried the shortcut through the mall again and wound up dead last with Sango coming in third not too far behind Inuyasha.

"Okay, that's it. I'm just gonna stick to the streets from now on," Kagome declared as they headed out of the arcade and back to Miroku's car.

"Those shoppers really do come out of nowhere," Sango agreed.

"Had a great time, guys," Inuyasha said then. "Thanks." While he said it on purpose, because several other students were within earshot, his words were actually honest. He _had_ had a good time.

"Anytime," Miroku answered as they piled into his car.

Offering to swing back by the university so that Inuyasha could get his own car, he waved off Miroku's concern, not worried about leaving his car in the school's parking lot overnight. He could easily run to campus from his apartment the following day. In fact, he could probably run to school faster than driving, but such public displays of youkai abilities were generally frowned upon in the human side of town. Doing it just the once, though, he wasn't worried about it. He'd stick to the rooftops and probably nobody would even notice.

Since neither Kagome nor Sango had their own cars, Kagome usually walking to and from school since her place wasn't too far away, Miroku happily agreed to play chauffeur for everyone in that moment, dropping Kagome and Inuyasha off at their respective apartments before heading to the apartment complex he shared with Sango, although his girlfriend had her own separate apartment on the other end of the building. He planned on just dropping her off at her side of the building, as well, but one look from his girlfriend once they were alone told Miroku that he could skip swinging by her side of the building.

They too had waited until they were out of high school to take their relationship to the next level, but it hadn't taken the lovebirds long at all to 'christen' each of their new apartments after starting college. They'd made love for the first time months before that fateful night between Inuyasha and Kikyou at the start of summer break, jumping into bed together practically as soon as their bedrooms had been furnished with one, and the only reason they hadn't decided to move into one apartment together in the first place was so as not to scandalize Sango's family. At least they had managed to find two available apartments in the same building. They usually ended up spending the night together in one apartment or the other, although Sango's parents didn't know that. Miroku had every intention of officially asking Sango's father for permission to marry her, when the time was right. He and Sango had already discussed it, and she'd already told him yes, but that he still wanted to do it by the book really meant a lot to her, so she'd refrained from saying anything to her family, even her mother, about how 'close' she and Miroku had become.

She'd actually felt kind of guilty enjoying such happiness with Miroku since Inuyasha's bad breakup, and for a couple of weeks there she and Miroku hadn't been as intimate, but after Inuyasha had started pulling himself out of his funk enough to at least speak with his friends again, he'd said something about it to Miroku once, discreetly, when he'd made a rather obvious sniff in the houshi's direction before telling him not to let his failed relationship with Kikyou get between him and Sango. Her cheeks still warmed thinking about when her boyfriend had relayed Inuyasha's not-so-subtle message, but in that moment, as Sango looked Miroku's way, she knew that Kagome was well on her way to healing Inuyasha's heart, even if neither of them realized it yet, and so she would no longer feel guilty about enjoying her boyfriend's _company_.

"What are you thinking about?" Mirouk asked her while stopped at a red light, having noticed the contemplative look on her face.

"Just how much I love you," she answered.

Pulling into his designated parking spot at his side of their apartment building, Miroku told Sango he felt the same way with a kiss.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

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The following afternoon, against his better judgment, Inuyasha kept his word to meet up with the rest of their circle downtown for an evening of food – and drinks, for the older students – at Tsubaki's Hideout. It was a grungy, casual bar and restaurant popular with the college crowd, but he'd never been before because it was located deep within human territory and while there was no official middle ground between the humans and youkai it did seem to be somewhat more socially acceptable to see the occasional youkai in a human district the closer you got to the border of a youkai town.

Immediately, he could feel the eyes upon him, and even _see_ the eyes upon him from the few who glared in his direction a bit more openly, but he had not arrived with the others and in that moment, even though being glared at like an outsider was uncomfortable, it was something he was used to. He was glad he had spared Kagome the same, should these people have sensed the relationship between them.

While they were working on building up towards a fake _romantic_ relationship, she was most definitely his real best friend, and he knew she felt the same way. She would never have agreed to pretend to be his girlfriend otherwise. Just like Miroku was his close guy friend if he needed to talk to a guy, Sango was there for Kagome when she needed another woman to talk to, but when it really came down to it, Sango and Miroku had each other before anyone else and Inuyasha knew he and Kagome were each other's number one as well. They were best friends, plain and simple, which would be enough to turn hateful people against her if in _their_ opinion the two of them were acting a bit too chummy.

He couldn't help it if to the outside world they looked like something more. While he'd never thought about Kagome that way, and truth be told he wasn't ready to start thinking about having genuinely romantic feelings towards _anyone_ at the moment _,_ he wasn't blind, and knew damn well that whenever he and the others went anywhere together they looked like two couples. They'd been giving off that impression ever since their last year of high school, whenever Kikyou hadn't joined them for whatever the rest of them did. That really should've been a red flag, he realized looking back on it, that even while still considering Kikyou his girlfriend Kagome had become so much closer to him as far as a regular best friend was concerned. Shouldn't your girlfriend also be your best friend? But he'd ended up telling Kagome little things about himself that he'd never shared with Kikyou, and he'd also felt like he could be himself around her because she wasn't fazed by his potty mouth while Kikyou had always, annoyingly, scolded his use of foul language in her presence and he'd ended up trying to watch what he said fairly early on in their relationship.

That should've been _two_ red flags that Kikyou wasn't the right girl for him, on top of all the warnings his friends had tried to give him. He'd been a fool; he knew that now. But even though his heart was still broken, and in no condition to be given to another, the part of it that held platonic love for his friends was thankfully alive and well, and Kagome had definitely been right when she'd said that she was the most logical, most believable choice for his pretend new girlfriend. Most people who'd seen them around for a while who _weren't_ opposed to the notion would probably think it was about damn time they got together.

Let everyone think what they wanted. He certainly wasn't opposed to the idea of openly having people believe he and Kagome were together, or he wouldn't have agreed to let her do it. She was a wonderful girl and under different circumstances, like if he'd never met Kikyou, or had at least met Kagome first, then he could've seen himself actually falling for her instead in that alternate timeline.

Hell, Inuyasha could even admit that, a couple of times over the last two weeks, he'd offhandedly contemplated the possibility of he and Kagome eventually getting together at some point in the future, in _this_ timeline, but besides just not being emotionally ready for those types of thoughts yet, the hanyou knew that Kagome only saw him as a friend, anyway. Guys were usually the ones who tried to say that men and women couldn't be platonic friends without sexual tension getting in the way but he knew that most women would disagree. Girls were perfectly capable of having guy friends and to Kagome, he was her best friend, but nothing more. Right now, though, that was honestly all he wanted from her. If she actually _were_ interested in him romantically he would've had to turn her down, and the _last_ thing he wanted to do was break _her_ heart, so he was glad it was only a stupid _what-if_ that had flittered through his mind and nothing he really had to worry about. They were friends, but _as_ her friend, Inuyasha was still glad he had spared her the experience of being glared at just then, if she had walked into Tsubaki's Hideout with him.

"Inuyasha!" the miko of his thoughts suddenly shouted over the din, having sensed his demonic aura. Standing up to make it easier for him to spot her with all the confusing smells, she waved.

 _So much for that, then_... He sighed, rolling his eyes, as the few people who'd initially glared at him immediately started glaring between the two of them.

But to her credit, if Kagome noticed the nasty looks and quiet mutterings by a few people around their group she didn't show it. At least nobody from their circle had any major problems with Inuyasha. The couple of people who _had_ had changed groups last semester, after the first day in fact. True, not everyone in their group was all that thrilled with the idea of having a hanyou among them, but they at least outwardly kept their opinions to themselves, for the most part, at least. Kagome didn't count her encounter with Abi, Yura and Kagura yesterday because they had been polite enough at the beginning of the year, and were only starting to act bitchy now because Kikyou had roped them into her own private little sub-clique. It was only natural that they would turn against their ring leader's ex-boyfriend. Kagome was relieved that Kikyou had not shown up for this gathering, and hoped that it meant the evening would pass without too much drama.

As Inuyasha approached the back corner of the restaurant and the large group of tables that had been taken over by their martial arts circle, he exhaled the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding as he also realized that Kikyou was, in fact, not among them. Since reiki auras had a tendency to blend together and Kagome and Miroku's auras combined were so powerful, he hadn't been able to sense from the parking lot whether or not his ex was in the building; there were far too many overlapping scents for his nose to do him any good. Her bitchy friends were here, he noticed right away, but that was no big deal. He'd expected to see them, he just hadn't been looking forward the the prospect of having to make nice with Kikyou while out in public. He wouldn't have put it past her to come along just to fuck with him, especially after her confrontation with Kagome and Sango yesterday, but on the other hand, maybe it was because Kagome had told her off that Kikyou had shied away, afraid of being humiliated, herself, when his friends came to his defense.

"So glad you could make it!" Kagome exclaimed cheerfully as he maneuvered himself around the tables and squeezed down into the empty chair Kagome had saved for him, which was thankfully located between herself and Miroku, Kagome on his left with Sango sitting over on Miroku's right, while Suikotsu sat at Kagome's left.

She'd known he wouldn't want to sit next to anyone else, and that thought had Inuyasha grinning a little as he glanced her way and nodded his thanks before picking up his menu.

While college students typically joined groups such as their martial arts circle to socialize, and usually everyone became close friends, it was understandable that Inuyasha didn't feel quite as sociable when he knew most people didn't really want him around. He liked some of the people in their circle well enough, the ones who didn't have a problem with him, but even his close friendship with Kagome, Miroku and Sango had taken about a year to fully develop. He'd only known these people for around four months before Kikyou had ripped his heart out; nobody could really blame him for not feeling too social after that.

Of course, some people would prefer it if he never came out to socialize, at all.

"Didn't think you'd show," Renkotsu said while Inuyasha continued to look over the menu, his tone carefully neutral.

Flicking an ear in Renkotsu's direction, the man sitting on the other side of the table but not directly across from him, instead sitting two seats down, across from Sango, Inuyasha glanced his way for only a moment and replied with "I said I would, didn't I?" before averting his gaze back down over the selection of food.

Tsubaki's Hideout was a burger joint, and he had to admit, even with as much as he loved ramen, a western style burger and fries sounded really good about then.

"And we're definitely glad you did," Sango chimed in, sitting forward a bit to look past Miroku and meet Inuyasha's eyes with a nod before shooting a quick look at the man sitting across from her, as if daring him to say anything further.

"Definitely," Jakotsu agreed with a whimsical sigh, the effeminate man sitting to Renkotsu's left.

Renkotsu shot Jakotsu a glare while Inuyasha snorted in amusement. Jakotsu had made his attraction to Inuyasha known since day one, and even after Kikyou had none-too-politely told Jakotsu to back off, the hanyou was taken, that still hadn't stopped the man from flirting. It didn't bother Inuyasha one bit. While Jakotsu was playfully flamboyant, the man was actually a decent guy. During their first training session after summer break, when Jakotsu had approached and told him he'd heard about the breakup, he had not only _not_ tried to hit on him afterwards but had sincerely offered his condolences. He'd gone back to playfully flirting after that, but Inuyasha knew Jakotsu knew he didn't swing that way and was only doing it to get a rise out of him, and not the perverted kind. It worked, too, as Inuyasha couldn't help but smile at Jakotsu's silliness, and in his mind Jakotsu was one of the ones who could potentially become another good friend the more he got to know him.

"I'm glad you decided to join us, too," Bankotsu said then, just trying to be nice. He was sitting on Renkotsu's right, across from Miroku. "Believe me, I've been there, but you can't let a broken heart rule you the rest of your life."

"Yeah," Inuyasha readily agreed. He doubted Bankotsu's heart had been quite so thoroughly destroyed, but then, the whole point of the ruse was to not let anyone know how broken he really was. He appreciated that the man was at least trying to be civil.

It was more than he could say for the skank sitting directly across from him. Yura absolutely reeked of sex, and for him to notice it so strongly in a place like _this_ it was like she'd just banged a few guys immediately before coming here. He knew it was really none of his business what she did and she could fuck every guy at their school for all he cared, but for her to then be crinkling her nose at _him_ in disgust as she was in that moment while she pretended to study her own menu, as if he wouldn't notice...

 _Feh, whatever, bitch_.

He knew why she was disgusted by him. He knew Kikyou had told her, and it was embarrassing as hell, but he was not about to let _her_ know that.

"What do you recommend?" he asked Kagome then, since she'd put her menu down a few minutes ago.

"Stickin' to your own kind," some random patron muttered from the next table over, although it was thankfully uttered quietly enough that it'd been meant for that patron's friend's ears only and nobody but Inuyasha had heard it among their group.

Used to ignoring such things, knowing that if he tried to defend himself he'd just wind up getting kicked out of the restaurant, he kept his fake smile plastered firmly in place while waiting for Kagome to answer.

"It's so hard to decide," she stated truthfully. "But I think I'm gonna go with the Old West burger."

Inuyasha nodded, acknowledging her choice. It _was_ hard to decide, but he had his choice narrowed down between Kagome's and one other.

"I think I'm leaning towards the Big Kahuna burger, myself," Suikotsu chimed in, just trying to join in on the conversation to be nice.

"Both good choices," Inuyasha agreed, since Suikotsu's selection was the other one he was trying to decide between.

Inuyasha liked Suikotsu well enough. He also seemed like a decent guy, and he was studying to become a doctor. He'd joined their circle merely as a stress reliever but their little college was his first stop on a long list of higher education before becoming a surgeon.

He was also sitting between Kagome and Mukotsu, who'd made uncomfortable googly eyes at Kagome last semester, so anyone who protected Kagome, whether they directly knew it or not, was an okay guy in his book.

For the next few minutes most people at their table engaged in mini conversations that excluded he and the others, but Inuyasha was honestly all right with that. Even when Suikotsu started chatting with Mukotsu, Abi and Kagura, he wasn't offended. Instead, he, Kagome, Miroku and Sango merely started up their own mini conversation, as well.

"So you up for us coming over this Sunday to help you with your arm throw?" Inuyasha asked Kagome. "I know you work at your family shrine on the weekends, but there's really no room in any of our apartments to practice judo, anyway. The shrine grounds would work much better."

Mildly surprised, because when he'd said he'd help her yesterday she had presumed he'd only said it for show and it would really only be Sango helping her – and in fact that could still be the case, so she would be sure to get clarification later once they were alone – Kagome answered, "I'm sure I can find the time to squeeze it in. Sounds like fun!"

"It doesn't bother you, going onto shrine grounds?" Kagura's cousin Byakuya asked, genuinely curious. Sitting between Kagura and Yura, directly across from Kagome, he hadn't been able to help overhearing.

Since he hadn't meant anything rude by the question Inuyasha decided to give him a completely honest answer. Shrugging, he said, "It depends on how hostile the shrine is."

That earned Kagura's attention, as she broke off her conversation with Abi.

" _Shrines_ are not _hostile,_ " she spat rudely, as if personally offended even though, as far as Inuyasha knew, they were not members of a shrine family.

Before he could even try to defend himself and explain what he'd meant, Kagome beat him to it.

"Actually, some shrines are _very_ hostile, towards youkai that is. Some even have wards set up that forbid all youkai entry, as if simple youki would actually taint the holy grounds." She snorted, showing just what _she_ thought of that idea. "Fortunately, _most_ shrines these days comprehend the fact that youki is merely another form of spiritual energy, different from reiki yes, but not necessarily in an incompatible way. There are definitely dark versions of youki, like jyaki or shouki, but reiki can also turn to the dark side pretty easily and be used for black magic, so I don't see the logic in automatically condemning one form of energy over the other."

Smiling at the miko sitting beside him, Inuyasha cleared his throat a little, suddenly finding a lump in it he had to swallow, before meeting Byakuya's eyes and adding, "The Higurashi shrine actually has charms around the property that block wickedness, specifically, so in the event of a demonic attack it would work well as a safe zone, the barrier projected by the wards protecting the grounds from evil youkai, or kuro miko and houshi for that matter, who might be in league with a youkai rebellion, but friendly youkai and hanyou without darkness in their auras would be able to enter."

"Cool," Byakuya answered, actually finding the subject rather interesting. Kagura shot him a nasty glare at his comment, but Byakuya merely shrugged.

He'd never met a hanyou before Inuyasha, and while he didn't personally believe that humans and youkai should be involved _romantically,_ he understood how most youkai were peaceful and would fight on the side of humans against a rise of evil youkai trying to take over the world. And he hadn't even thought about the possibility of evil miko and houshi helping the youkai, but it was true that such a thing could theoretically happen. That Kagome's family had taken both good youki and bad reiki into consideration when designing the wards on their shrine grounds was good thinking in his book, and he said as much in that moment.

"How can you possibly..." Kagura started to argue, before getting nudged by Abi, the other woman sitting at Kagura's right.

"Just ignore him," Abi murmured, earning an eye roll and sigh from Byakuya that Inuyasha and Kagome (among others) couldn't help but notice, even though hanyou and miko tried to pretend like they hadn't.

Of course, Byakuya didn't care that they'd caught on to his displeasure with his cousin. He was glad to let the miko sitting across from him know that if it ever came to a choice, he would be on _her_ side before the other miko in their group. He and Kagura used to see a lot of things eye to eye before she'd gotten sucked into her little sub-clique led by that Kikyou chick. As far as he was concerned, they were _all_ supposed to be friends, their entire judo circle, and if Inuyasha's presence bothered her that much then she should've just quit the group at the beginning of the year like a couple of other people had. Don't wait half a year and _then_ decide you have a problem. And she hadn't even liked Kikyou at first. Not until after she'd broken up with Inuyasha and revealed she'd only been using him for his money. He'd heard all about it, whether he'd wanted to or not, and while Kagura had seemed almost relieved when she'd explained to him why she was friends with Kikyou now and what all she'd learned about the miko, Byakuya honestly felt sorry for the hanyou.

Just because he didn't personally believe it was right for humans and youkai to interbreed didn't mean he was going to be a total dick to Inuyasha because of it. It wasn't _his_ fault his parents had made him, and as he was getting to know him he considered him a decent enough guy. Byakuya still believed in marrying your own kind, but he didn't necessarily see anything wrong with humans and youkai being _friends_. It was better than staying enemies, wasn't it?

It couldn't be an easy lot in life, he realized, being neither human nor youkai. It would be easy for him to say that Inuyasha shouldn't live in the human district, that he should be with the youkai, but it didn't escape his understanding that most youkai probably didn't want him, either, and even though hate crimes were illegal they _did_ happen on rare occasion. He was probably _safer_ in the human district.

Kagura hadn't thought that what Kikyou did was particularly cruel since women used men for their money all the time, and reluctantly, Byakuya could see her point, even though he didn't agree with her assessment of using men in such a way not really being _cruel_. She considered it a win/win situation since the men got something out of it in return, but that only applied if the men _knew_ their women were using them for their money and didn't care. But while he personally thought that Kikyou was a heartless bitch for using Inuyasha in such a way he could at least still see how it hadn't really been _worse_ than another woman using a human man in the same way. He'd been a victim, but not necessarily because he was hanyou. Had he met with Kikyou's 'approval'then she _wouldn't_ have broken up with him, regardless of his youkai blood, and from getting to know Kikyou a little better, Byakuya would bet that that woman would've broken up with a human man just as easily if his body hadn't 'measured up' to her expectations. Kikyou was a shallow gold digger and her prejudices were literally skin deep, so while she'd definitely still been cruel, Byakuya would bet it hadn't been the worst the hanyou had ever faced in his life. While he was sure that finding out the woman he'd loved was only using him and was too disgusted by his body to touch him was a special kind of pain that differed from total strangers telling him he had no right to exist, Inuyasha had clearly already gotten over it, undoubtedly coming to the realization that Kikyou was just a bitch and he shouldn't take whatever she'd said to heart.

In fact, Kikyou was a special kind of bitch, since Inuyasha getting over their breakup seemed to bother her for some reason, which Byakuya personally found highly amusing. What the hell did she care if Inuyasha wasn't moping around like a beaten puppy? A normal woman might've even felt guilty at the sight of their ex being totally crushed after a bad breakup, but to Byakuya it was almost as if Kikyou _wanted_ Inuyasha to be miserable, since seeing him having a good time always seemed put _her_ in a sour mood, and that was something Byakuya definitely didn't approve of. He knew why Kikyou had been so angry during their breakup, thanks to Kagura blabbing it to him, because supposedly Inuyasha had kept his 'differences' a 'secret'from her, but in Byakuya's mind Kikyou was definitely _not_ the victim here and had no right to want to keep hurting Inuyasha over something he as a fellow man could definitely sympathize with.

Byakuya was pulled from his wandering thoughts when their waitress came by and started taking everyone's order.

"I'll have a Big Kahuna burger," Inuyasha ordered when it was his turn.

Yura snorted quietly, as if amused by a private joke.

"What?" he asked, annoyed but sarcastically trying to both look and sound as innocent as possible, which earned a quiet snicker from Sango. "It looks good," he added, which was completely true.

"Oh nothing," Yura waved off.

Inuyasha didn't understand, at first, because he didn't get what was so amusing about him ordering a burger called the 'Big Kahuna'...but then it dawned on him. It was what he _hadn't_ ordered, instead.

"Did you expect me to order the _Big Dog_ burger?" he asked, everyone else at the table starting to pay a little closer attention while their waitress fidgeted nervously as the scene unfolded before her.

Yura snorted again, trying hard not to completely crack up, which earned quiet snickering from Kagura and Abi although Byakuya sent a meaningful glare Yura's way that she ignored.

Inuyasha, meanwhile, rolled his eyes upward as if begging the kami for patience, and he was even more grateful now that Kikyou hadn't tagged along. He was just about to attempt brushing it off as a stupid joke, saying something along the lines of 'Ha ha, good one,' when Kagome came to his defense in the best way possible.

"Well, you know what? I actually think the Big Dog looks great. In fact, going over all the available choices I think it's the _best_ option available, so that's what _I'm_ going to order."

She met and held the waitress' gaze, her fake smile plastered firmly in place. It took the waitress a moment to catch on and snap out of it, but then she dutifully jotted down Kagome's order, having already written down Inuyasha's prior to Yura's interruption, and then taking Suikotsu's and Mukotsu's orders she went on her way.

Before the awkward silence could build in her wake, Jakotsu had the perfect stress reliever.

"You're gonna have to let me know how the _Big Dog_ is, girl," he said, speaking loud enough for Kagome to hear from her place five rows down. "I've been wanting to try it myself for months now," he added with a wink.

Sango and Kagome both giggled as Inuyasha blushed, unable to help themselves, but even despite the heat he could feel rising up his face Inuyasha chuckled a little, as well. Since while they were technically still 'just friends' they were supposed to be building up towards their fake relationship, he figured it would be appropriate enough to reply with a teasing, "I'll make sure she gives you a full report."

That earned even more laughter, including from Suikotsu, Bankotsu and Byakuya, and as Yura huffed quietly to herself, annoyed that what _she_ thought was the perfect joke had been ruined, Inuyasha's lips curved upward in a genuine grin of triumph. Not everyone was for him, but neither was everyone against him, and it was that latter realization that he was still finding more and more astonishing with each passing day.

Even though he would never forgive Kikyou for the pain she'd put him through, one thing he was, begrudgingly, grateful to Kikyou for was the way she'd initially helped him to open up and trust other people when they seemed to want to make friends with him. While it'd turned out she'd just been using him the whole time he had inadvertently met genuine friends as a result of her mind games, and thanks to them being there for him in his time of need, his ability to open up to others hadn't been completely destroyed with her betrayal.

While it was painful, if he could actually do it all over again he couldn't honestly say that he would change anything. It was easy to say in a fit of anger that he wished he'd never even met Kikyou, but if he really hadn't met her then he would've most likely never befriended Miroku and the others, either, unless after Miroku had told Kagome about the shy hanyou in his class she would've made it her own personal mission to break through his walls, which he wouldn't put past her had the situation been different, but as it was, Inuyasha was grateful that things had happened the way they had, and he would take the bad with the good, since it meant having his friends. While he was pretty sure he disagreed with the old adage that it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, because a part of him really wished he didn't now know what he was missing since he knew from first hand experience that longing for something you wanted but had never had wasn't nearly as painful as actually getting it and then having that happiness _ripped_ away, taunting you with the prospect of never having it ever again, if he _could_ change anything about what'd happened with a wish all he would really wish for was that Kikyou had really loved him, had not been using him and had not broken up with him. With that not an option, he would learn to live with the pain. He _had_ been miserable before Kikyou, after all, it had just been a different kind of misery, of complete isolation and loneliness, and he never wanted to feel _that_ way ever again, either.

Thanks to his friends, he never would.

The rest of the evening thankfully passed by fairly uneventfully. The food arrived in a timely manner and was delicious, and conversation among them remained fairly neutral. A few more people from neighboring tables continued to gripe about him, and twice a couple actually entered the establishment, saw him, and then turned around and left, but miraculously nobody actually started a scene and he wasn't asked to leave. He might have been, had he attempted to eat there alone, but he would not over analyze the situation. Nobody from the staff even spat in his food, so as far as he was concerned the night was a success.

Once everyone headed out into the parking lot Inuyasha was just about to say his goodbyes and get in his car when inspiration struck.

"I know you two had plans after this, so if you want, I can take Kagome home," he said to Sango and Miroku, before glancing Kagome's way and adding, "If you don't mind, that is."

Of course, Miroku and Sango had no such plans, Sango actually having planned on just going to bed alone in her own apartment that night since she had an extra early morning with something her father wanted her to do.

Even if she and Miroku _had_ had plans, though, that wouldn't have stopped them from being able to drop Kagome off at her own apartment first, but Inuyasha's friends were getting pretty good at improv and knowing it was a part of the 'plan' Sango immediately chimed in with, "That would be wonderful," before also turning and meeting Kagome's eyes. "Is that all right with you, Kagome?"

The miko could only hope that Inuyasha thought her sudden increase in heart rate was due to being surprised by the on the fly improvising and fearing she might blunder something if she wasn't as quick on the uptake. As it was, the idea of being alone with him for a few minutes during the drive home was giving her stomach all sorts of butterflies, but in a good way, even though she wished she could tamp down the rising heat she could feel on her cheeks. Knowing at this stage they were just supposed to be 'friends' but also knowing that they were working on building up to their fake relationship, Kagome figured her natural reaction worked just fine for their purposes, if she were supposed to be pretending to be falling in love with him.

 _Oh what a tangled web we weave_...

"Yeah...that'd be fine, if _you_ don't mind," she finally settled on answering, trying to throw some actual acting into the mix as she looked up at him shyly through her lashes.

There were lots of witnesses as everyone had piled out of Tsubaki's Hideout at the same time, not that they were the center of attention, but she'd noticed at least a few curious sets of eyes glancing their way, so she was actually really proud of Inuyasha for having thought of this because she honestly hadn't, and they would've missed a golden opportunity.

"I offered, didn't I?" he replied with a gentle smile.

Trying to figure what would be the most appropriate reaction to that statement, as a friend who was developing stronger feelings but unlike in real life _wasn't_ trying to hide said developing feelings, she answered simply with, "Oh yeah," while continuing to look bashful. She then turned quickly to address Sango and Miroku, as if flustered by her reaction to Inuyasha, before stating, "See you tomorrow guys."

"Goodnight," Sango answered cheerfully before getting into her boyfriend's car, she and Miroku pulling away.

Kagome walked with Inuyasha through the parking lot to his car, most of their classmates going their own way at that point although she could feel at least a couple of sets of eyes still on them. She didn't dare drop the act, not that she really felt like she was acting all _that_ much to begin with. Actually, it was starting to feel like 'dropping the act' _was_ the act. As soon as she and Inuyasha were truly alone, safely driving down the road, she figured they would probably start talking about their plans for tomorrow in regard to 'the plan,' scheming and plotting and maybe even coming up with a remedial script to follow, all the while she'd have to pretend that she _wasn't_ in love with him and was really only a good platonic friend but nothing more.

 _When first we practice to deceive_... she continued in her mind with a mental sigh. _For Inuyasha_.

She was doing this for Inuyasha, and for him, she would endure anything.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

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Watching the lights of the city go by, Kagome wished she could tell the butterflies in her stomach to knock it off. She knew she was being ridiculous, and knowing that his youkai hearing would be able to detect the rapid beating of her heart didn't help her to calm down one bit, either. Fortunately, for her sake, Inuyasha had no idea what actually had her so flustered all of a sudden.

"Are you _sure_ you're okay with this?" he asked her one last time, since he figured she had to have realized that him offering to give her a ride home was the start of him officially working towards their fake relationship. "It's not too late to change your mind and keep us 'only friends' if that's what you want," he assured her. "I don't want you to do anything you don't feel comfortable doing."

 _Don't feel comfortable…?_ she thought, amused but knowing better than to express her thoughts out loud. This was a dream come true. _Of course, it's only make-believe. I can't ever let myself forget that._ For her sake as well as his.

Especially his.

Her heart was going to take some collateral damage during this little exercise, she knew, but it would be well worth it to see that smile on his face. Especially knowing that at least some of the time, the smile was real.

"You only surprised me," she told him then, since that part was definitely true.

"Sorry to put you on the spot like that, but you did a great job," he said.

"You're certainly keeping me on my toes," she acknowledged as they pulled up to a red light. "But that was actually a really good idea, offering to take me home like that. Good thinking."

"It just came to me right when I said it. I was hoping Sango and Miroku wouldn't blow it."

"We all know what's going on, so it's not like we were confused, but yeah, that _was_ quick thinking on Sango's part, immediately playing along like that."

"I owe you guys big time," he stated honestly. "Once we get through all this, you just name it and it's yours."

 _You_ , Kagome thought, biting her lower lip to keep from blurting it out loud like an idiot. "You know you don't need to buy me anything," she answered instead.

"Yeah yeah yeah," he brushed off, playfully not taking no for an answer.

The next few minutes of the drive were actually spent discussing he and the others showing up at the Higurashi Shrine this coming Sunday, and at approximately what time, and he also asked her whether or not her family knew what was going on. Not even knowing how her family really felt about the idea of interspecies relationships, Inuyasha wasn't sure if he should be concerned that they were going to get their hopes up, happy for Kagome to be in a relationship, only to be saddened when they ultimately 'broke up', or if they would _not_ approve of the two of them dating and he was running the risk of having her family upset with her.

Appreciating his concern but reminding him of how they hadn't had a problem with him being her _friend_ for the last two years, and so she didn't really think them 'dating' would be an issue, she told him that while her little brother and grandfather _were_ out of the loop, she had in fact explained the entire situation to her mother.

Boy had she.

Mrs. Higurashi knew the _whole_ truth. It would've been impossible to dance around the subject since she'd alreadyknown her daughter was in love with him. Back in high school, after having gotten to know him, Kagome had shared with her mother her doubts, her heartache, because she'd believed, she'd _known_ , that Kikyou was no good for him. It had been Mrs. Higurashi who'd asked her daughter directly but gently if she had feelings for Inuyasha, and then Kagome had collapsed into tears, confessing that she loved him _so much_ and how hard it was to see him with Kikyou, although on the other hand, if she made him happy...

Feeling sorry for her daughter, Kagome's mother had told her only that she'd needed to do what she'd felt was right in her heart, and so ultimately Kagome had made the decision to let it go, since she and the others had _already_ warned Inuyasha about Kikyou and he hadn't wanted to listen. Kagome had known it would be wrong to let him know of _her_ feelings and so she hadn't, prepared to let him become the one who got away as he happily lived his life with a woman who was only using him for his money. So long as he was happy, that had ultimately been all that'd mattered to Kagome.

After his and Kikyou's breakup, Kagome had discussed with her mother how she knew he needed time, how she understood that now was _not_ the appropriate time to approach him and she needed to remain there for him as a _friend_ while he healed. Mrs. Higurashi had told her daughter how proud she was of her, telling her to be patient because she was a firm believer in all things happening for a reason and that maybe, just maybe, he would come around to liking her on his own. If the four of them continued to hang out together as friends, with Sango and Miroku being as closely involved as Kagome had implied they were, then Mrs. Higurashi had believed it was only a matter of time before Inuyasha noticed what was right in front of him.

When Kagome had then told her mother about _the plan_ , about how it had been Inuyasha's idea for them to help him at least pretend to be over his heartache in public because of how Kikyou seemed to be gloating over his misery, and how after he'd commented on maybe finding a woman to pretend to be a new girlfriend she'd volunteered for the position, Mrs. Higurashi had only told her daughter to be careful, and to not be too disappointed if a fairy tale ending of him actually falling in love with her didn't come to pass. It very well might, but it also might not, and Kagome assured her mother that she understood that. She hadn't agreed to do it in the hope of Inuyasha actually loving her in the end, she had agreed to do it because she was his friend, and indeed she believed what she'd said about her being the most believable option in the eyes of their fellow classmates, to most likely make their plan a success. But Kagome had assured her mother that if Inuyasha truly did only see her as a friend in the end, she was prepared to live with that outcome, and her broken heart, in silence.

Mrs. Higurashi had only again told her daughter how proud she was of her, for how mature she was acting. Thankfully, she'd told Kagome enough that the miko could then relay to Inuyasha in that moment what her mother'd said without it seeming like she was leaving out anything important.

"While Grandpa and Souta know about you and Kikyou breaking up, because I already told everyone back when it'd first happened, I only told Mom about our plan," she explained. "She told me she was proud of me, for being such a good friend to you in your time of need, so she's definitely not disapproving of our little game." Thinking of something else, she added, "I think it would be best if Souta remained in the dark, though. If he knew we were only faking it he might let it slip to one of his friends and then it might work its way back to us and blow our cover."

"Good idea," Inuyasha agreed.

A lot of students at Tama U had younger siblings either in high school or junior high, as Souta was. He could just envision somebody from college who didn't approve of their 'relationship' talking about it openly with their family once it became public knowledge. He could easily picture someone's younger brother or sister then thinking to tease Souta about it. _"Your sister's dating a half breed!"_ they might taunt on the playground. Not that he thought Souta would crack under the pressure and admit their relationship was fake in self-defense. Kagome's kid brother actually idolized him, for some stupid reason, so he could easily see the boy taking the proverbial bullet and keeping their secret in the face of a tormentor. But if he'd told the secret to a _friend_ , someone he thought he could trust, and then word spread at his school about how his older sister was dating a 'freak', somebody else might think to contradict that story on Souta's behalf.

On the other hand, if Souta himself believed their relationship _was_ real, then any confrontation about it would only confirm the story, as he proudly, and as far as he knew _honestly,_ defended them. It was also possible that instead of sharing the secret of thee really cool 'trick' they were playing on Kikyou, Souta might actually brag to his closest friends about he and Kagome being an item, and so even if no bullies ever taunted Souta about it at his own school word of it might work its way back _up_ through the siblings where younger junior high students told their college age brothers and sisters what Kagome's little brother had said.

Inuyasha felt a little guilty, using Souta in such a way, but it wasn't really like they were _relying_ on him to carry out either scenario. It was also just as possible that nobody at his school would hear about it or care one way or the other. It was just a precaution. Letting the boy know the truth was an unknown variable and a risk he'd simply rather not take. Besides, Souta was probably too young to understand the intricacies of a broken heart, and when told the truth about them only faking their relationship he'd probably ask them _why_ , and ask why they weren't just together for real instead.

Glancing at Kagome in that moment as he navigated the city streets, Inuyasha sighed.

"Something wrong?" she asked, which did _not_ earn a forced smile from the hanyou because, one thing he truly appreciated about Kagome, was that he could drop the bullshit cheerful routine whenever they were alone. He just hated the side effect of him letting her see how bummed out he was bumming her out in return. At least her question prevented his mind from dragging him back down into thoughts of Kikyou yet again.

"Nothing much," he answered, before clearing his throat. "I feel kinda bad lying to your brother, but I definitely agree it's the right thing to do."

"Yeah," Kagome agreed.

"I was just thinking about how happy our 'relationship' will probably make him, and how upset he'll be when we 'break up' later," he fibbed, not about to tell his best friend what he'd _really_ been thinking.

"I'll make sure he isn't too upset," she assured him then, having already given the matter some thought, herself. "We just need to make sure that everyone believes our breakup is mutual, and that neither of us have a broken heart because of it. We're simply too good of friends, and we'll _remain_ friends, after the breakup. So if Souta tries to get angry with you or blame you for anything I won't let him. I'll explain to him how sometimes adults can simply fall out of love."

 _I wish I knew how to make myself_ _really_ _fall out of love with you,_ Kagome thought as she stole a glance at the hanyou beside her before turning her eyes back to the road ahead. Thinking about it a minute, she amended, _On second thought, no I don't_.

Even though Inuyasha probably wouldn't ever love her back, she treasured her feelings for him and she would protect them, always.

"What about your grandfather?" he asked her suddenly. This time Kagome was the one grateful for the distraction, since her thoughts had been wandering back into forbidden territory, as well.

"He's never said anything bad about you being my friend, but I honestly don't know how he'd feel about you 'dating' me," she admitted, emphasizing the word _dating_ with air quotes. "I'll tell Mom that if Grandpa gets upset over it, like _really_ upset, like he's going to try to forbid us from seeing each other upset, that she can tell him the truth, but honestly, I don't really see that happening. He's the one who first taught me that youkai are just another kind of people created by the kami, after all. He's not racist."

Inuyasha thought back to when he'd first met Kagome's family. She'd told him at school one day that they'd wanted to meet him, that she'd talked about befriending him and they'd been curious, plus apparently proud of her for not being racist towards him, herself. He'd been a nervous wreck but had agreed to go to dinner at her house so long as Kikyou, Sango and Miroku came, too. Back then Kikyou had still been acting nice, still hanging out with them more often than not; it had been prior to the others overhearing her say the things they'd told him about and dinner had gone off without a hitch. Thinking back, Kagome's grandfather certainly hadn't seemed to have a problem with the fact that his girlfriend had also been a miko, as if he and Kikyou shouldn't have been together.

Well, they shouldn't have been, but not because she was a miko.

In fact, thinking about it, Kikyou's parents hadn't had a problem with him, either, but he wondered now how much of the truth Kikyou had told her mother. Theirs was a middle class shrine family just like Kagome's. Comfortable enough, always enough money to keep the bills paid and keep food on the table, but nowhere near enough _extra_ money to live the life of luxury Kikyou apparently thought she deserved. It made Inuyasha wonder how she'd been raised, since seeking out a rich boyfriend had obviously been her goal from the very beginning. Her mother had probably been willing to overlook his hanyou status the same way Kikyou had been, at least after she'd explained to her his financial situation.

Abruptly realizing that he'd somehow managed to start thinking about Kikyou again, after all, his mood souring accordingly as his ears sat turned downward on his head, he sighed again and was grateful when Kagome didn't ask him what was wrong a second time. She knew. She knew his daily happiness was still at least 80% artificial. Every once in a while they got a genuine smile or laugh out of him, and the arcade had been fun yesterday, but more often than not he still had to drag himself out of bed in the morning, not really feeling like facing the day. He no longer mourned the loss of Kikyou, specifically. He had been telling the truth back when he'd told the others that he no longer loved her and did _not_ want her back. But still he mourned the loss of his happy relationship, just generally speaking. The loss of believing he was loved, and of having someone, _anyone_ , to love in return.

He'd had their future all mapped out in his mind. They were going to take their relationship to the next level, something they'd been building up towards slowly since college began, since they were adults living on their own now, and by the end of summer break he would've formally asked Kikyou to marry him. He knew she was a fan of the western custom of engagement rings so he would've gotten her the best, most beautiful, most expensive diamond ring he could find. They would've enjoyed a long engagement throughout the rest of college, actually getting married after graduation, at which point he would've then bought he and Kikyou whatever kind of home she'd wanted to live in while he secured his financial future by assisting his father with the family business. Kikyou, meanwhile, would've never needed to lift a finger, and indeed she wasn't studying anything in particular to assist her with a career goal. Her career goal was landing herself a rich husband, he knew now. At the time, when they'd first taken the entrance exam for Tama University, Kikyou had told him meekly that she didn't know what she wanted to do with herself besides be a miko at her family shrine, and he'd foolishly assured her that she needn't worry about a regular job; he'd take care of her.

He snorted at the memory, not unaware of Kagome glancing his way again at the sound. The miko currently sitting beside him bit her lower lip, clearly unsure of what to say to cheer him up, or if she should even bother. It was obvious to her that his mind had wandered off again, and one guess in which direction. He met her eyes for a brief moment and offered her a small half smile and nod, silently letting her know that he was okay. She immediately smiled and nodded back, and as he shifted his eyes back to the road again he felt the pressure around his heart lighten up just a little bit at the sight. He hated that his sour mood rubbed off on her so easily, because it pained her to see him in pain. It pained _him_ to see _her_ in pain, too, especially when he knew his own misery was the cause. Her face should never be marred by a frown, and he would try his best to make sure he was no longer the culprit who put one there.

Thinking about both Kagome and Kikyou a moment, comparing the two miko in his mind, it dawned on Inuyasha that he'd never really felt that same pang with Kikyou, but neither could he honestly remember ever having seen her upset in the first place. Knowing now that she'd been faking her emotions for him the entire time, she'd clearly never thought to reveal any time she might've actually been feeling genuinely upset over anything. It was probably one of the first rules in the gold digger's handbook: always act happy and loving.

She sure frowned a lot _now_ , of course, the sight of him acting happy every day at school clearly upsetting to her, which was honestly enough to make his fake smile genuine because seeing her get upset over the simple fact that he _wasn't_ upset was just about the stupidest thing he'd ever seen. And as far as he knew, she hadn't successfully landed herself a new boyfriend yet, either. Rumor was she'd dated a few guys but nothing had come of it; some of the guys on campus were even starting to talk about how pathetic she was, knowing she was a gold digger and wanting nothing to do with her. Sometimes, he loved his demonic hearing.

Having to pick up a part time job as a waitress just to pay her apartment rent probably had something to do with that frown on her face, too, but like he gave a rat's ass if she'd failed to plan ahead when _she'd_ broken up with _him_. Had she honestly expected him to keep paying her rent for her after that?

 _Feh, stupid bitch_.

And she hadn't added any new classes to her roster for this semester, either, which meant all she'd probably be able to do for her long term career was be a waitress unless she eventually managed to land herself that rich husband she wanted. It was either that or move back home and be a full time miko at her family's shrine, which he didn't particularly see as a bad thing but knowing how Kikyou was, she'd probably been hoping for a way to escape that lifestyle.

She wasn't a very good miko, either.

The few classes she'd signed up for at Tama University were all for reiki users, and revolved around harnessing and channeling her reiki, like the miko archery class. By her own admission early on in their relationship, Kikyou was an okay shot with the bow when she wasn't trying to charge the arrow, but creating a purifying arrow took so much concentration that it usually threw off her aim. Inuyasha had tried to tell her, once, what Kagome had often said, about heavy concentration actually making it harder and she should just let it go and just _feel_ , which made perfect sense to him since that was how his own youki worked, but Kikyou had, politely, dismissed the advice as foolish. She'd never seen Kagome in action. Of course, neither had he, but he'd listened to and believed Miroku's stories. Stories the houshi had only told whenever it'd been the four of them, Kikyou not coming along for whatever it was, and so she honestly had no idea just how good of a miko Kagome actually was.

In fact, Inuyasha was suddenly reminded about what Kagome had said that Kikyou had said to her yesterday in the dressing room. He'd overheard Kikyou, himself, a couple of times, as she'd spouted random insults about Sango and Miroku to her gold digging bitch friends. It only made sense that she'd also insult Kagome's abilities as a miko. She probably wanted to discredit all three of them for taking _his_ side in the breakup. _She_ had only been using him for her own financial gain, after all, so in her eyes that had made it a smart plan on her part, and one she'd bailed on when the time was right. But assuming the three of _them_ actually _weren't_ using him for his money and were instead genuinely _friends_ with a hanyou, well then something had to be wrong with them, right? The only possible explanation was that they had to be freaks and losers in their own way in order to want to associate with the biggest freak and loser of them all, which apparently somehow in Kikyou's mind also translated as Kagome being a lousy miko. Yet, while Kagome's career goal was to become a reiki coach for the next generation, and so she was spending college learning how to teach little kids so she'd be able to help them unlock _their_ reiki, Kikyou was actually still learning how to properly handle her own.

Inuyasha chuckled quietly at the thought, his ears perking back up as he remembered Kagome's little improv during judo practice and thought about how it had apparently gotten under Kikyou's skin. Kagome was definitely the superior miko between the two of them. There was no doubt about that.

"Don't know what you're thinking about now, but it's good to hear you laughing again," Kagome said suddenly, and he grinned at her, his left fang poking out.

"Just thinking about how if you and Kikyou actually did get into a miko contest you'd totally kick her ass," he said.

"Maybe so," Kagome agreed, sounding somewhat amused herself at the notion. "But if we were both given the same math test then I'm sure she'd be the one declaring victory. Different people have different strengths and weaknesses."

"And defending people even when they don't deserve it is definitely one of your strengths," he commented.

"Oh, I'm not defending Kikyou as a _person_ ," Kagome emphasized then. "I'm just not going to pick on her for having trouble with her reiki when that's not really her fault," she explained. "But being a total heartless _bitch_ is _totally_ her fault, and something I can legitimately hate her for," she finished smugly, grinning wide when Inuyasha barked out surprised laughter at her declaration.

"Good point," he said after a moment, turning on Kagome's street.

Pulling into the parking area for her apartment complex he reiterated, "Again, I owe you one."

Grinning as she grabbed her purse, Kagome replied with, "And again, no you don't."

Chuckling a little, he shook his head.

"Well if I randomly decide to buy you some kind of present, anyway, you better not think of rejecting it," he said then, his tone of voice playfully stern.

Kagome tried to keep her heartbeat and breathing steady as she threw on a teasing smirk and answered with, "I wouldn't dream of it. That'd be rude, after all."

In actuality, the thought of him buying her a present, any kind of present, really meant a lot to her, but it _was_ also true that she didn't want to give off the impression of only liking him for his money. That being said, it _would_ be rude to reject his kindness, but saying it in a teasing manner earned her the desired result as he only laughed again, a genuine laugh, as she exited the car. "See you tomorrow," she said.

"If anyone asks, I was a perfect gentleman, merely driving you home," he replied, hinting that he was once again talking about their grand scheme, the living art exhibition that was their day-to-day life those days.

"We could change that if you wanted me to invite you in," she teased, feeling brave all of a sudden.

He chuckled again, a little bit, but then shook his head.

"We'd better keep it realistic," he said, and she didn't know whether to feel flattered or insulted as she kept her now fake smile plastered firmly in place. It was official. 'Dropping the routine' was definitely when she did her most acting.

"I'll make sure to be rightfully flattered by your honorable ways when I see Sango tomorrow," she assured him then, since they were alone, letting him know that _she_ knew that it was time for her to start 'confessing' to Sango about falling in love with him.

It had all been prearranged back in his apartment; Sango would know to play along. The hard part was going to be keeping Sango from realizing that she _wasn't_ faking her love for him as she spoke of such things in the faux privacy of the women's bathroom, when they weren't actually alone so as to be overheard. Kagome hoped few well timed winks when nobody else was looking would be enough to throw her off the scent.

Inuyasha nodded his understanding to Kagome's statement. "See you tomorrow," he said then. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," she replied, making her way to her apartment.

It was just as well that he stayed in the car, otherwise she _would_ have been tempted to invite him in. But for what? Coffee? She mentally snorted at the absurd thought, careful not to make any such noise out loud for fear of inu-youkai hearing. But this was not a cheesy western romance and she had no business thinking such things. Thankfully, she was a better actor than he suspected. While that nose of his could detect deceit with malicious intent, even the best lie detector, living or mechanical, could be fooled. Inuyasha was no mind reader, and just like Kikyou's love of his _money_ had been enough to make her affection seem genuine, since she had been telling the _truth_ when she'd originally spoken of wanting to spend the rest of her life with him, so too did Kagome's genuine desire to see Inuyasha happy mask her heartache. She couldn't dare let him smell her tears, and the only way to ensure that he wouldn't was to prevent them from falling in the first place. The only way to do _that_ was to convince _herself_ that hiswell being was all that really mattered. It was the frame of mind she'd been living with ever since she'd first realized she had fallen in love with him, so she was no stranger to it by that point, but neither did she consider herself a martyr. She was content in her decision those days and didn't want anyone's pity.

Inuyasha watched her walk away, waiting until she was safely within her apartment before heading home, completely unaware of the thoughts that had been swimming around in Kagome's head. His own head was a soupy mix of conflicting thoughts and feelings at the moment, so the last thing he needed to burden himself with was the worry of what somebody _else_ was thinking.

Besides, as far as he knew, he _knew_ what Kagome was thinking. He knew she'd obviously only been joking about inviting him inside, and if he had actually taken her up on it all they would've done was discuss more details about the next stage of the plan. But they'd already worked out most of the details that first night in his apartment, during the new moon, and so he hadn't wanted to risk any of Kagome's Tama U enrolled neighbors seeing him there and misunderstanding. He wanted to do this _right_ , in a way that would hopefully limit the collateral damage she might face from dealing with people who did not approve of her dating him. The last thing he wanted was for people to think they'd fallen into bed together _before_ falling in love, so they would need to take it slow. He couldn't risk their fellow classmates thinking she was just his rebound chick. He wanted it known their relationship was based on emotion, not physical lust.

To that end, it was definitely time to start working towards that new 'relationship' status in the eyes of their school. Kagome would have her 'girl talk' with Sango tomorrow, when there were other women within earshot, about how she 'thought she was falling in love with him,' and Sango would give her her 'advice,' which was to tell him how she felt. They'd figure out when and where to have _that_ conversation later, if they decided to do it publicly at all. He blushed at the thought. On second thought, it would probably be more believable if he and Kagome had _that_ talk in private, so what he would probably end up doing was have a moment of 'guy talk' with Miroku beforehand, too, where he would tell the houshi the same thing, that he was falling for Kagome, and Miroku, in his truest form, would tell him to 'go for it.' Then, from the privacy of one of their apartments, the four of them could figure out what he and Kagome supposedly discussed, and then the miko could have a followup conversation with Sango at school a couple days later, and likewise he could speak with Miroku again where they would be overheard, about how the two of them had talked and agreed to start dating.

He wasn't worried about the actual 'dating' process. He immensely enjoyed spending one-on-one time with Kagome, and taking her out to dinner to a few nice restaurants would actually be the perfect way to pay her back for all she was doing for him without her being able to refuse his generosity. It was a little sneaky, perhaps, but she could playfully chew him out for it all she liked while they were alone in his car. He chuckled just thinking about it.

In fact, the more he thought about it, of taking Kagome out to dinner at some of the nicest restaurants in the city, the more his smile grew. He didn't even mind that the places he was thinking of taking her to had been Kikyou's favorite restaurants, or that he'd taken Kikyou to them first. That part couldn't be helped, and it certainly wasn't the restaurants' faults. Thinking about when he'd taken Kikyou out to dinner, though, he was reminded of how Kikyou had 'shyly' (see: craftily) told him she didn't own anything nice enough, and so he'd actually taken her dress shopping, first. His grin got so wide it exposed both fangs as he realized he'd have to do the same for Kagome, and since she _wasn't_ using him for his money, didn't even want him spending it on her in fact, taking her dress shopping was going to be _fun._

He would've rubbed his hands together in evil delight if he didn't need to keep at least one of them on the wheel, as he drove the few short minutes from her apartment building to his own.

He sighed as his apartment complex came within view, wishing she lived in the same building as him, or he her. Actually, at the time, all five of them had originally hoped to find apartments in the same complex, but no such luck. Everyone else who was starting school that year had been looking for apartments too, after all, and vacancies which had already been few and far between had been filling up left and right. Sango and Miroku had managed to find places in the same building, which was convenient since most of the time those two spent the night together, but while Inuyasha had been upset, at first, that Kikyou had gotten her own place in a different complex, now he was relieved.

"Okay, time to stopthinking about _her_ ," he reminded himself for the nth time as he pulled into his parking spot.

Still, he supposed it was all right to have random thoughts of Kikyou pop up so long as they were about how much _more_ he would enjoy taking Kagome dress shopping than he had Kikyou, or that he was glad Kikyou did _not_ live in his apartment building. He also supposed it was just as well that he and Kagome didn't live in the same building, either, otherwise once they were supposedly fully _involved_ with one another it would be a little suspicious why they never took advantage of their geographic closeness to spend the night together. Not that he honestly thought either of them were going to be spied on by their neighbors, and it was really nobody else's business _what_ he and his girlfriend did or didn't do behind closed doors. But the whole point was to throw Kikyou's bullshit about him being 'unlovable' back in her face by proving that he _wasn't_ destined to only be with someone willing to put up with his looks for his money, no matter if he honestly believed it himself or not.

He agreed that, statistically, it had to be at least _possible_ that some woman, somewhere, actually would be willing to love him for him, but what were the odds of him actually _finding_ her? But if Kagome was willing to do all that she'd said she would do for him out of friendship then he supposed _anything_ was possible.

 _Kagome…_

That woman was something else. As Inuyasha entered his dark, empty apartment, he found himself already missing her company. She was such a wonderful distraction from the negative thoughts that lived inside his head. Even when he randomly thought of Kikyou when Kagome was there, her presence always helped to pull him back out of it again. Now, as kicked off his shoes in the entryway, pulling the rest of his clothes off on his way to the bedroom, Inuyasha's mood actually dropped not so much because he was thinking about Kikyou again, but because he missed the distraction Kagome's company provided.

Crawling naked into bed, he sighed as he pulled the blankets up over his head, trying to block out the sounds of the city. Curling in on himself, even though he wasn't cold, he valiantly tried to just turn his mind off and go to sleep, but it was no use. Without Kagome or the others there to keep him distracted at night, his depression always managed to creep back up on him. He could understand why some people started drinking to dull the pain. He had no intention of going down that road, however. He wasn't _that_ depressed, and heaven forbid he actually develop a problem and give Kikyou something new to gloat about. Stupid bitch would probably love it if he became an alcoholic mess, which was reason enough to never start drinking, not to mention he couldn't disappoint his parents like that.

While he hadn't spoken about it very much with his father, his mother knew he was still upset over the breakup, that he'd been faking his happiness at school. He hadn't told her about Kagome agreeing to pretend to be his girlfriend because he hadn't known how she would feel about that – not that he was going to let her think Kagome really _was_ his girlfriend; hopefully she wouldn't find out about it one way or the other – but from just knowing that he was still upset over Kikyou dumping him Izayoi had told him, just like his friends had told him, that she believed there was somebody out there for him and that, one day, he would find true love. Of course, his mother also didn't know the _whole_ story behind his and Kikyou's breakup, only that she'd turned out to be using him for his money but then she'd decided his money wasn't worth being married to a _hanyou_. Izayoi had very wisely told her son that if she could fall in love with his father, a full blooded inu-youkai, that there was no way there was _no_ woman out there for him as well.

If Inuyasha weren't susceptible to the same natural revulsion every nineteen-year-old felt at the thought of their own parents going at it, then he probably would've taken a moment to think about what possible unknown (to him) inu-youkai characteristics his father just might possess even while in humanoid form. But that was the biggest kicker, wasn't it? His father's _humanoid form_ was conjured by magic, a shape-shift he induced through sheer strength of will no different, in reality, from a kitsune changing shape. The only real difference was that Toga had only two forms he could switch back and forth between whereas true 'shape shifting' youkai could look like whatever they wanted. But even they had a _true_ form, and that his mother could be with a man whose true form was actually a giant white dog, and ignore all the disgusted looks sent her way their whole marriage because of it, even including from former friends who'd accused her of being into _bestiality,_ then maybe his mother actually knew what she was talking about.

Feeling a little more optimistic, he uncovered his head and rolled over, telling his subconscious mind to cut it out with that depression bullshit. Besides, it bothered Kagome.

He fell asleep peacefully, with a half-smile on his face.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

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The next day at school, their plan went off without a hitch, the four of them making sure they were on the same page with a group text Kagome had initiated before school. Between classes the miko 'pulled Sango aside' and told her in a serious tone, with a couple of covert winks, that she thought she was developing feelings for Inuyasha. The hanyou, likewise, spoke with Miroku about Kagome, having told him in that morning's text that he thought it was the best way to go. Agreeing wholeheartedly, Miroku played along at school and predictably told him to _go for it_. That day at lunch they all acted like everything was normal, which Inuyasha had said would be the most realistic, if you added another fine layer on top of their acting. If he and Kagome were independently, awkwardly realizing they had stronger feelings for the other, but didn't yet know that the other person felt the same way, then surely they would attempt to act naturally during their group's lunch together at Hungry Ninja Noodles, right?

After school they didn't go hang out at Shikon Arcade because Miroku had to work, but Inuyasha figured it was just as well. Surely Kagome was supposed to be thinking that she had a lot of stuff to think about, and he too, as he told Miroku it was fine when the houshi apologized, saying he had stuff to take care of, anyway. Then Kagome chimed in, saying she needed to get caught up on some schoolwork, too, which was absolutely true. In reality, since it was Friday and the arcade was bound to be packed, Inuyasha hadn't really felt like going, anyway, although he would have without complaint had everyone else wanted to. He was glad it didn't work out that way, although he did offer to give Kagome a ride home so that Miroku and Sango could go straight to his place. He figured it made sense to offer her a ride if he was supposed to be following the houshi's advice to _go for it_. Playing her part, Kagome made sure to look extra cute and shy as she agreed to let him take her home.

Dropping her off was uneventful, and swinging through a fast food place on his own way home Inuyasha watched TV while he ate, flipping through the channels in the hope of finding something that would function as a good enough distraction while he was alone. It didn't even occur to him that he wasn't trying to block out thoughts of Kikyou, but rather, how much he was going to miss Kagome tomorrow, since he wouldn't be seeing her again until Sunday.

The following day, Kagome got up bright and early since she would be walking down to the train station and taking the train out to the rural end of town where her family's shrine was located. It was a short train ride; she could just drive if she had a car, but she couldn't afford one and if he ever offered she would _not_ let Inuyasha buy her one. At least not right now. Not while there were already rumors going around that she and the others were only being friendly with him because he paid for things. She was sure that once she and him started 'dating' there were going to be those who thought she was only with him for his money, no different than Kikyou, except that maybe her standards were even lower than Kikyou's since Kikyou had broken up with him and, supposedly, the _reason_ for their breakup wouldn't be an issue for her, because they planned on eventually taking their fake relationship to that fake next level by letting the school think they were fully intimate. She'd had to assure him more than once that she really didn't mind doing this for him, but she really didn't.

The only thing that kind of irked her was the idea of people thinking she was only with him for his money. She wasn't that way. She'd much rather they just hated her because they didn't believe in interracial relationships and thought she was disgusting for sleeping with someone of youkai blood. At least then, while she didn't personally agree with their viewpoint, they would be hating her for the right reason because she _would_ be willing to be with Inuyasha in a genuine relationship, and she really wouldn't care who had a problem with that.

"That reminds me," she said to herself on her way to the train. "Gotta let Mom and Grandpa know they're coming over tomorrow."

That was going to be fun. She was really looking forward to it.

ooo

Since Inuyasha didn't have any classes on Saturday he didn't leave his apartment at all that day, but he actually spent the morning trying to battle his depression, not give into it. Trying to psyche himself up for tomorrow, he actually reached out and group texted the others around noon, after he knew Sango would be done with her morning shift at the taijiya dojo. Even though Kagome wore traditional miko robes while at the shrine, which had no pockets, she was a modern 21st century girl and always had her cellphone with her, even if it was just sitting on a nearby desk, so she didn't miss the message either and all four of them worked out the details for the following day. Kagome informed her friends that she'd already told her family they were coming over so there was no problem there. With his mood perking up a little from their brief text conversation, Inuyasha then surprised the others by inviting Sango and Miroku over for an early dinner before Miroku's work shift, if they wanted, joking that he was bored. They recognized it as the admittance of loneliness that it was, of course, and Miroku and Sango both said they'd be glad to come over. Apologizing that she couldn't be there, herself, Kagome felt grateful, at least, that the others could be there for him. Secretly, she was amazed that he'd actually asked them to come over, basically confessing to wanting the company, but she was also proud of him for doing so. She knew better than to express all that in the text conversation, though. Instead, she merely wished them all a good rest of their day and said she was looking forward to seeing them tomorrow.

When Sunday morning finally rolled around, Inuyasha decided not to wait around until after Sango got out of work. Miroku said it was fine and that the two of them would meet him there as soon as they could. Showing up at the Higurashi Shrine earlier than expected, he'd fully intended to just hang back out of the way until Kagome was done working but upon seeing him Mrs. Higurashi went ahead and excused her daughter from the rest of her duties. Not only that, but she informed her daughter of the bento boxes and grape soda she had waiting for them both in the kitchen.

"I thought you were gonna come with the others," Kagome said as they ate, in a way that let him know she was definitely not upset that he'd shown up ahead of schedule.

He shrugged.

"I discussed it with Miroku this morning," he said. "This just made more sense."

While Sango had to work her morning shift at her family's dojo, first, Miroku dutifully waiting until his girlfriend was ready because he was her ride, Inuyasha had no other obligations and could therefore head out as early as he wanted.

"Besides," he whispered as he leaned in conspiratorially so that her grandfather and brother wouldn't overhear, "if I'm supposed to be realizing I have deeper feelings for my female best friend," he said with a wink, "then it makes sense that I'd take advantage of the excuse to see you as soon as possible, and have some 'alone time' with you all to myself before the others get here."

Kagome laughed a little at his words, unable to help herself since he'd been talking like they were secret spies or something. She refused to let herself feel any heartache because she'd known full well what she was signing up for when she'd agreed to do this. She supposed, logically, his reasoning _did_ make sense, and it was just as well as far as she was concerned because, truth be told, she was glad to share some alone time with him, herself, whether he'd plotted it as a mere chess move or not.

Of course, the truth was, he really _had_ wanted to see her. Claiming it made sense as far as their _plan_ went was just an excuse, although a plausible one, which he was glad worked to his favor. While he didn't want to be alone, he knew he could've hung out with Miroku while they waited for Sango's shift to end, but that option hadn't sounded as appealing. He would have if Kagome had been off somewhere else doing something else and seeing her hadn't been an option. He would've definitely sought out Miroku's company as opposed to being alone in his apartment because right now being alone in his apartment for too long at a time led to depressing thoughts he couldn't always chase away on his own. In a way, he realized, he was using his friends as a type of drug or alcohol, wanting the temporary high of being in their presence to help numb him from the pain he felt whenever he was alone. But who could honestly say that that wasn't what companionship _was?_ Everyone had friends so that they were less lonely. Some people were just more content in their solitude than others. He tried. He tried to control his thoughts at night, and reflect on the fun times rather than letting the pain of his broken heart keep him up at night. Thinking back on the good times with _Kikyou_ was problematic, because knowing now that the bitch had been faking it since day one, those memories were forever tainted, but some of his best memories involving Kagome also unfortunately involved the other miko so he tried to put a Kagome filter on those thoughts and just think about the bits and pieces he wanted to remember, like the first time he'd treated his friends to Disneyland, or when they'd all gone to Comic Con.

In that moment, though, he had no need to think back on fun times with Kagome because he was with her, right now, eating a bento and sipping on grape soda while listening to her talk about her day. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so content.

As she sat and chatted with Inuyasha, Kagome was grateful her mother knew the _whole_ truth. Talking and laughing openly with him as she was, Kagome had abruptly realized she no longer needed to watch how she behaved around him quite so much, at least while in public, because like he'd so eloquently pointed out, he, and she too, were _supposed_ to be realizing they felt a deeper affection for one another, and so now, instead of her long established pretending that she only saw him as a friend whenever the four of them hung out she could finally start letting her _genuine_ feelings for him show in little doses, albeit with him _thinking_ she was acting, but whatcha gonna do? But if she'd never told her mother she loved him back in high school, and if she hadn't also explained to her _the plan,_ thenMrs. Higurashi would've undoubtedly noticed the sparkle in her eyes and wanted to talk to her about it. Now, instead, Mrs. Higurashi actually did her part to play along, for her daughter's sake, coming up to them at the table to collect their long forgotten empty bento boxes and soda cans while teasing playfully, "Aren't you two supposed to be practicing judo?"

Since Souta was within earshot, the boy having come inside a short while ago, and they wanted him to fall for their ruse, for the greater good, Inuyasha pretended to get flustered and answered with, "Uh, w-well, we kinda gotta wait for Sango and Miroku to get here."

"Uh-huh," Mrs. Higurashi answered knowingly. "Good thing you got here so early, then," she finished with a wink Souta didn't see before walking away.

On the one hand, Mrs. Higurashi didn't really like the idea of Kagome fooling her younger brother like that. Their classmates at Tama U were one thing, and she understood why Inuyasha wanted to put up a front around Kikyou, but Mrs. Higurashi also knew how much her son adored that hanyou and he was bound to get so excited when he thought they were actually together, only to be devastated when they eventually 'broke up.' But, on the other hand, Mrs. Higurashi had relented to Kagome's logic when they'd talked in private the day before that Souta was probably too young to truly understand why they were playing such a game, so in his case maybe ignorance really was bliss. Besides, Mrs. Higurashi was also holding out hope that their fake relationship would ultimately turn into a real one. She knew she'd told her daughter not to be devastated if she didn't get her fairy tale ending, wanting to make sure Kagome was emotionally prepared for the possibility that nothing would come of this game other than heartache, but a mother could still always hope.

Having no idea what Kagome's mother was thinking as she walked away, Inuyasha was just glad that Kagome had told her mother the truth, and he was extremely grateful that she was not only not upset with him, but was apparently even willing to play along to some degree. Figuring the others would probably be there pretty soon, anyway, he rose to his feet, then, offering a hand to Kagome as he helped her stand as well.

That she didn't glance at their joined hands for a split second as if nervous of his claws, the way Kikyou always had on the rare occasions when he'd done the same for her, was just one more thing Inuyasha mentally added to his list of things that should've been a red flag about Kikyou. He wouldn't bring it up, though. If he was supposed to be fully over Kikyou then little such comparisons shouldn't still be entering his mind, so for the sake of their young audience he would stick to the script.

"May as well start our warm up stretches. Sango's already gonna be nice and limber from her morning at the dojo so she'll be ready to get down to it when she gets here," he said instead.

"Good idea."

That was how Miroku and Sango found Kagome and Inuyasha about a half hour later, the miko and hanyou both wearing white judogi and going through a series of kata moves in the open space off to the side of the family house, in the back of the shrine grounds. It was the perfect place to practice. Nice and open, and out of the way of visitors to the shrine but yet still somewhat visible if anyone happened to glance in that direction. There was a steady flow of visitors to Higurashi Shrine most days, so it was theoretically possible that someone from their college would come by. They had openly discussed helping Kagome with her moves back on Wednesday, and then again Thursday evening at Tsubaki's Hideout, so just in case anyone _did_ come by, they would see with their own two eyes that they hadn't been making it up.

That had been Inuyasha's logic at the time. When he'd first offered to help Kagome with her technique he'd definitely planned on actually doing it, not just letting Sango do it and then later pretending he had also participated. He hadn't known at the time if they were already going to be working towards pretending to build up their romantic feelings for one another yet, but now that they were, it was even better, a win/win in his eyes. Besides that, Kagome could actually use the practice.

"Sorry!" she said with a laugh as she once again failed to flip Sango, just like on Wednesday.

"Okay, Kagome, now watch closely," Sango said, the taijiya flipping the hanyou this time instead of the other way around.

"You make it look so easy," she said.

"That's cause it is," Inuyasha answered as he stood back up. "Here..." he said as he approached.

Inuyasha then proceeded to stand face to face with Kagome and use himself as the throw-ee while giving her the play-by-play instructions.

"Grip with this hand here," he said, as he used his left hand to place _her_ left hand on his right arm, under his elbow. Nodding her understanding, she clung onto a fistful of robe. "Then you turn yourself around like this," he explained next, even as he was actually the one who moved, coming around to stand behind her. He tried not to notice how intimate it suddenly seemed to be crouched over her from behind. "Now, reach up over your shoulder with your right hand and grab onto my robes at my shoulder."

She did so, but didn't grab him in precisely the right place at first, so Sango corrected. "More here," she said, moving Kagome's hand.

"Now just haul him up and over your shoulder," Miroku added.

"It's harder, I know, when I'm not expending any energy you can use against me, so I'll hop a little for this first try," Inuyasha offered then, Kagome having previously voiced her disbelief in her ability to budge him while standing still since he was so much taller and heavier than her.

Hopping a little as promised, Kagome tugged at the same time, crouching over a bit more in the process, and Inuyasha was relieved when he felt himself go up and over because being bent over Kagome's back like that had been stirring his inu-youkai instincts against his will. Lying flat on his back on the grass, now, his ears twisting to catch the sound as Kagome jumped up and down, squealing happily "I did it!" as she danced with Sango and Miroku laughed at the funny sight they made, Inuyasha took a moment to exhale slowly before schooling his features so that he was grinning broadly as he rose back up to his feet.

He and his instincts were going to have to have a nice long chat later, because even though he consciously knew that Kagome only saw him as a friend, and she was faking anything that was starting to seem _more_ than merely friendly, the inu in him was starting to react in the same way it had towards Kikyou in the very beginning, before he'd tamped it down so as not to freak Kikyou out. His animal side looked at any female willing to show deeper affection as a potential mate, but being half human, he was not truly ruled by his inu-youkai instincts. They were more just an annoying buzz in the back of his head that he could consciously decide to tune out. He just hadn't expected them to stir to life, along with something in his pants, as he wrapped himself around Kagome from behind.

Okay, so that had been an oversight on his part. It was a good thing his pants were so baggy.

"Good job," he told her proudly, keeping his grin plastered firmly in place. If Miroku knew where his mind had wandered, even though it had only been for a second and he was already back under control, the perverted houshi would never let him hear the end of it.

Instead, to give off the impression that he hadn't been flustered in the slightest, Inuyasha put himself right back into the same position, over and over again, as he allowed Kagome to throw him like a rag doll because, as he'd assured her back on Wednesday, being half youkai made it about impossible for her to accidentally hurt him. She didn't have to worry about botching the technique and dumping him on his head, or twisting his arm in a painful way, or anything else that might happen between humans if the technique was done incorrectly.

"Of course, when you're throwing an enemy, you don't care if you hurt him," Inuyasha said, as he 'charged' Kagome in slow motion. "Heeerrreee Iii coommmee..." he said in an exaggeratedly playful 'slow motion' kind of voice that made everyone laugh, although Kagome tried to concentrate despite her amusement as he walked towards her with slow and exaggerated strides as if fighting a hundred mile an hour wind, his claws playfully raised in mock attack as he made sure to get his arm at the right height for her to start the maneuver.

Kagome went through what she'd been taught, grabbing his arm the right way before turning her back into his chest and reaching up with her right hand to hook a fistful of robe. She then bent down and forward while tugging with all her might, and even though Inuyasha was moving slowly, his movement still helped. She did it a few more times, until she was sure she was doing it right, before daring to try it on Sango again, whom she once again tried flipping from a standstill because the taijiya was much lighter. This time, Kagome succeeded.

"Yay!" the miko cheered playfully as she did another little victory dance, earning amused chuckles from her friends, which earned _them_ her playfully sticking her tongue out at them in retaliation for their laughter.

All in all, it was a fun afternoon.

When it was finally time for Kagome's friends to depart, Sango was quick to come up with an excuse for Miroku to usher her out of there. They left rather quickly, after changing back into their regular clothes, of course, politely declining when Kagome's mother invited them to stay for dinner. Seizing on the opportunity Sango presented her with, Kagome asked Inuyasha if _he'd_ like to stay for dinner, since he'd driven himself there and didn't _need_ to leave when Sango and Miroku did.

"Sure, why not?"

Conversation over dinner was carefully neutral as Mrs. Higurashi skillfully asked primarily about Kagome's progress with the arm throwing technique, as had been the original reason for their get-together that day. That allowed Kagome to honestly and quite happily talk about how much she had improved, while Inuyasha jokingly chimed in that he could vouch for that because he'd seen how bad she had been in the beginning. That earned him an elbow to the ribs from Kagome, who was sitting next to him, while Mrs. Higurashi tried to mask her grin by taking a sip of tea.

Rightfully coming to his big sister's defense, Souta took that opportunity to tell Inuyasha just how unbelievably awesome Kagome was with the bow, which he told the boy he'd heard before, too, from Miroku. That earned Mrs. Higurashi asking Kagome how come she'd never actually demonstrated her archery for Inuyasha in the two and a half years they'd known each other, but before Kagome could answer – and honestly, she didn't really have a good answer to that question – her grandfather chimed in with, "Well maybe the boy wouldn't feel comfortable around the feel of her holy arrows."

It was a legitimate concern, but before he could speak up, Mrs. Higurashi beat him to it with a somewhat exasperated, "I didn't say they had to be _holy_ arrows."

"Actually," the hanyou interjected then, wanting to cut off any potential argument, "just so long as she doesn't use _me_ for target practice..." He laughed. "...I'd actually really like to see her holy arrows." Turning then to meet Kagome's eyes, he said, "It's gettin' kinda late, today, but maybe next Sunday?" Then he met Mrs. Higurashi's eyes again, before then shifting his gaze to her grandfather, as the man of the house. "If that would be all right with you, of course."

"Bah," Kagome's grandfather waved off, the man completely oblivious, so far, to the possibility of anything beyond mere friendship developing between the two of them. "So long as she completes her morning duties in the shrine," he said.

"Of course," Inuyasha agreed. "I would never dream of having her neglect her familial responsibilities." And he meant it.

That earned an appreciative nod from Mr. Higurashi.

After dinner, Inuyasha once again showed how gentlemanly he could be by insisting to Kagome that he could drive her home. There was no sense, he said, in allowing her to walk to the train station, alone, at night, and then ride the train alone, and then walk home alone in the dark from the station in the city. Perhaps laying it on a little thick, he explained that he understood that she could take care of herself and that she'd been making that same journey every weekend since the start of the school year, but since he was there with her on that particular night, it would look badly on him, he said, if he didn't insist on taking her home, instead. It wasn't as if they lived in two completely different districts, in the opposite direction from one another; his apartment building was only a few blocks away from hers.

Grinning despite herself, a smile that was quite real because she found Inuyasha's over the top acting in that moment rather amusing, Kagome laughed and said there was no arguing with _that_ logic, as she agreed to let him take her home without any fuss. She couldn't miss the not-so-subtle way her mother was smiling at Inuyasha, either, and briefly found herself wondering what her mother was thinking, if she was only playing along, thought Inuyasha was amusing as she did, or if she'd actually been fooled by Inuyasha's acting and thought she actually saw something that wasn't really there.

At least she could talk to her mother about it on the phone later, when Souta was in school and her grandfather was outside on the shrine grounds somewhere. If her mother actually thought that Inuyasha might really be falling in love with her for _real_ she'd set her mother straight. Inuyasha was still in no condition to be thinking about the possibility of a new relationship, with _any_ woman, as was made clear to Kagome as soon as she got into his car and they pulled away.

As his exaggerated smile fell, Inuyasha let out an exhausted sounding sigh, before glancing Kagome's way and sending her a much more realistic little half smile.

"I'm glad you managed to get the hang of the arm throw," he told her sincerely.

"I'm glad you agreed to stay for dinner, even if you didn't really want to," she replied.

He shrugged.

"Your mother's a fabulous cook," he said, adding, "and besides, I'm supposed to be falling in love with you now, right?" He chuckled a little. "So I should take advantage of every opportunity to spend more time with you, like driving you home."

"I appreciate it, though," she said. "It sure beats walking."

"Oh hell, I would've offered to take you home, anyway," he acknowledged then. "How much of a dick would it make me if I was just like well thanks for dinner, bye, and left, knowing you had to walk home?"

She giggled.

"And I assume you'll offer again next Sunday, if you're gonna be coming back over to watch me put on an archery show."

"Oh, of course," he agreed. "And I'm actually really looking forward to it," he added honestly. "Don't know why I never asked to see you shoot before. I was impressed just from hearing Miroku tell me about it."

"Probably didn't want to upset Kikyou," Kagome contemplated carefully. "Maybe, even subconsciously, you thought you didn't dare express an interest in something about me that I was better at than her."

"Maybe," he conceded with another shrug. "I know I asked her a couple of times near the beginning of our relationship if I could watch _her_ practice, just tryin' to be supportive, you know?" He sighed again. "She told me it would be dangerous for me to be near her while she was trying to channel her reiki. She didn't want to accidentally harm me if I got too close."

"I suppose I can understand her concern," Kagome said, cutting Kikyou some slack for once, as she explained to Inuyasha her own concerns about accidentally harming a demonic ally if she were ever called to fight.

But her concerns were about a fellow soldier who might be standing right beside to her during the heat of battle, not someone watching her fire arrows at stationary targets from several feet away, and she also told him what Miroku had said, about how reiki was controlled by the heart and there was really no way she could accidentally harm someone she didn't wish to, aside from that person foolishly jumping in front of an arrow she'd already fired, because her heart simply wouldn't let her.

"It's supposed to be the same way with me and my inner youkai," he told her then. "If my inner beast ever took over because of a life or death situation, rather than practicing in a controlled environment with teachers ready to subdue me if necessary, then supposedly, the way my sensei explained it when I was a pup, was that I would be merciless towards my enemies, whoever had been hurting me or my loved ones, but that I would not then also turn against those same loved ones, myself. On an instinctive level, my inner beast would still be able to tell the difference between friend and foe."

"I almost forgot you'd told me you had similar training to mine as a child," Kagome said.

He nodded.

"It's required of all powerful youkai species, if our youki is strong enough to pose a threat without proper training. I was the only hanyou in the class, and at the time the other kids made fun of me because I don't really have a _true form_ since I'm half human. This _is_ my true form and even though I change a _little_ bit when transformed my body doesn't change shape at all. But my teachers knew to take me seriously, anyway, because my father's a daiyoukai, meaning my youki is _strong_ for a hanyou, and stuck in humanoid form as I am, my transformed state is powerful enough to have my teachers worried, at first, that the strain of it would break my mind." He snorted at the memory. "Proved those bastards wrong."

"Yes you did," she agreed proudly, which earned another half smile sent her way.

The rest of the drive was spent figuring out how to best go about the next couple of weeks or so. They both agreed that getting the courtship process over and done with relatively quickly was realistic, under the circumstances, since they'd already known each other for so long. Once they both admitted to 'liking' each other and went out on a few dates, it shouldn't take long at all before they decided to make it official, acknowledging that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. They could still pretend to build up their intimacy level more slowly, but they both wanted to at least get their titles in place and let everyone at school know they were officially a couple.

To that end, Kagome suggested that she could continue to talk to Sango about not being sure how to approach him regarding her feelings for him, while he did the same with Miroku, and then those two could supposedly plot something sneaky of their own when they weren't within earshot. That sneaky thing would be the taijiya and houshi each individually bailing on lunch at the last minute one day for whatever made up reason.

"Sango could tell me, oh I can't make it, but go enjoy lunch with Miroku and Inuyasha, and then Miroku could tell you the same thing, so that supposedly you'd think that you're going to be meeting up with Sango and me," she explained. "Then in actuality it's only the two of us, and we can both publicly 'realize' those two 'set us up' as it were, and then we can have our big confession about _liking_ each other while having lunch just the two of us at Hungry Ninja Noodles."

Inuyasha nodded, approving of her plan.

"Whatever day we decide to do this, I'll invite you to dinner that night, not anywhere _too_ fancy. Someplace that other students go to."

"What about Tsubaki's Hideout, then?" she suggested. "I know some of the people were giving you, and us, nasty looks, but I don't care about that. The staff was nice and the food was good."

"I wasn't sure if you'd noticed that or not," he admitted, clearing his throat. "But yeah, if you don't mind then I guess I don't mind either. Tsubaki's Hideout would probably make the perfect spot for our first official date, come to think of it, 'cause there'll be lots of other people from Tama U there, and you also don't gotta worry 'bout not owning anything too fancy. Yet."

He smirked when she asked, "And what's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Oh look, that dog's wearing a sweater," he said as he looked at the people crossing the street in front of them while they sat stopped at a red light, somebody's little pet dog indeed wearing a sweater as it walked beside its human owner. "I don't really think it's that cold yet."

"Don't you change the subject," Kagome pouted, feigning upset when he chuckled. "You better not tell me you're planning on taking me to a _fancy_ restaurant at some point."

"All right." He grinned. "I won't tell you."

"Inu _ **ya**_ _sha_..." she whined playfully. "That means you'll also have to take me dress shopping since I don't..." She saw the way his grin only grew wider and sighed. "You already had that part figured out, too. That's why you said ' _yet_.'" It wasn't a question.

"I don't care if you don't think I owe you anything for all you're doing for me, Kagome. _I_ think I _do_ owe you and I am damn well going to take you dress shopping, and out to a fancy dinner that would cost you an entire paycheck, and you are damn well going to _like_ it, so there."

She grinned despite herself. "Yes, sir."

He laughed, and the rest of the drive was once again spent hashing out the rest of the details to get them to the point past dating and being officially _boyfriend and girlfriend,_ hopefully by the end of September. That way, Kagome could spend a good chunk of October planning what kind of matching Halloween costumes they should wear, since surely they'd be doing _something_ for Halloween. That would be fun, he acknowledged, but in his opinion, dressing her up for dinner would be even better. Her only response to that was to stick her tongue out at him, which made him laugh again, which made her smile, and Inuyasha was practically giddy by the time they reached Kagome's apartment. He was definitely looking forward to dragging her out to dinner proverbially kicking and screaming, after forcing her to wear an expensive ass dress. She'd need several, of course. He planned on taking her to a lot of different restaurants throughout their 'relationship' and she just _couldn't_ wear the same dress over and over again, now could she?

"You really enjoy torturing me, don't you? I thought you were supposed to act like you _love_ me," she pouted as she exited his car, grinning wider when he laughed yet again. It was such a wonderful sound. "Two can play at that game, you know," she said then as she turned around to face him, the passenger door still open. "While at those fancy restaurants I could always prattle on about something totally brainless and annoying, and feign anger when it's clear you aren't even listening."

He only laughed again while shaking his head, and said, "One thing I _do_ love about you, Kagome, is that you're definitely _not_ that type of a girl."

Knowing he obviously meant platonic love she only smiled for him again and winked, earning another chuckle from the hanyou as she finally closed the passenger door of his car and headed up to her apartment. She hadn't bothered teasingly inviting him inside this time, nor had she dared ask what the protocol would be once they were 'boyfriend and girlfriend' and he was dropping her off at home for the night. She knew he ultimately wanted Kikyou to think they'd been intimate, once the timing seemed appropriate for their relationship to have gone that far, but she also knew that since there were no demonic noses on campus that would spot the lie, besides his own, it wasn't as if they _really_ had to do...well, anything.

She didn't know if she was relieved or disappointed.

But those were the kinds of stupid, pointless hypotheticals her mind threw at her when it was late at night and she was trying to fall asleep. Right now this was only the reprise of a thought that'd first crept up on her a couple of nights back. What if their school had been more mixed, and there were other youkai, even one other, who would've known they were faking their closeness unless they went through the motions in order to acquire the appropriate smells?

If you just asked her if she was willing to sleep with Inuyasha under such circumstances then the answer was _yes_. She was a big girl, and while she was technically still a virgin if you didn't count her toys it wasn't as if she was planning on saving herself for marriage. If she hadn't fallen in love with Inuyasha back in high school and been unable to become interested in any other boys as a result, and if she'd then had a boyfriend, she was sure she would've slept with him by now, just as Sango and Miroku hadn't put their closeness off for one minute longer than necessary. But thinking about it in that moment as she stepped out of her shoes in the entryway before heading into her bedroom to change into her pajamas, Kagome knew it was pointless to even factor in _her_ thoughts on the matter because the real question was whether or not _Inuyasha_ would've been willing to do such a thing for the sake of the game. And would it have even really still been a game anymore at that point?

Well, she supposed so, if there were truly no emotions involved, at least on his part. It would've made her a rebound. But then, he did care about her as a friend, so...friends with benefits?

Ultimately, Kagome decided as she brushed her teeth before bed that she was glad there were no other youkai noses at their school and therefore it was a non-issue. She would gladly let the humans think they'd been intimate, but she was equally as glad that they didn't actually have to do anything in real life that might very well jeopardize their friendship in the long run. While a fairy tale ending would be nice, she at least wanted her and Inuyasha to remain friends after everything was said and done.

As Inuyasha pulled into his own apartment complex and headed up to his humble abode, his thoughts were running along completely different and yet similar lines. The thought of _actually_ doing anything intimate with Kagome was absolutely out of the question, and honestly, it had never even occurred to him. Obviously, it was all just going to be a story, just lies, just like their 'developing feelings' in the first place. He was glad that their friendship was so strong it could handle an entire school _thinking_ they were more. It would be no big deal, he supposed, if everyone was going to approve of their relationship, but not everyone would, and Kagome was going to catch hell for it at least occasionally, he just knew. But she'd already told him that she was prepared for that, and that she didn't _care_ , because _those_ people were not her friends, _he_ was, and at the end of the day, their friendship was all that mattered to her.

How the fuck had he gotten so lucky? And Sango and Miroku were really good friends, too, to also be willing to play along with such a long, complicated ruse, just because he didn't have the balls to tell his ex-girlfriend to go to hell to her face. But honestly, now that they'd already all seen for themselves how his happiness seemed to be upsetting Kikyou, the others were getting more into it. When he'd asked Kagome if she was nervous about Kikyou possibly confronting her again at one point, about their 'relationship,' Kagome had said she was looking _forward_ to it, and Sango, too, had said she was looking forward to the time when she could 'gush romantically' to Miroku about all the romantic things Kagome would supposedly tell her that _he_ had done for her, making sure to tell Miroku all about it whenever there were plenty Kikyou's spies around.

He laughed just thinking about it.

There was no doubt about it, Inuyasha knew, as he crawled into bed with a full blown smile on his face. He was the luckiest hanyou on the planet.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

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The next two weeks seemed to go by in a blur. After discussing it with Sango and Miroku, they both agreed to Kagome's plan to stage a 'setup' lunch date between herself and Inuyasha, supposedly without either hanyou or miko being aware of it until they 'realized' that it was just the two of them at the noodle shop.

"Sango told me she couldn't make it," Kagome said. "But Miroku was supposed to be here."

"Really? That's funny, Miroku told me the same thing," Inuyasha replied. "Except he told me Sango was still going to be here."

With several eavesdropping witnesses Inuyasha and Kagome put their acting skills to the test as they each took turns confessing to 'kinda sorta _liking'_ each other. Taking it up a notch, Inuyasha specifically made it a point to assure her that he was completely over Kikyou, and that it did _not_ bother him that she was also a miko. He hadn't been turned off to all miko just because of what Kikyou had done, and beyond that, because he _was_ over his ex, he also wasn't trying to secretly _replace_ her. He 'assured' Kagome that he was not trying to use her as any kind of a possible _copy_ of Kikyou just because they had a few superficial similarities.

"You've been my best friend for years," he stated honestly, since hell, that part was definitely true. "Even when Kikyou and I were still together, and I guess looking back on it, _she_ should've been my best friend, I always kinda felt closer to you, in a friend kind of way, opening up to you about things I never told her." That part was also true, and Kagome already knew it, but he didn't care who else heard it now because it was definitely nothing he was ashamed of admitting publicly.

He then asked her out to dinner that night. "Nothing fancy. How about we just grab a burger at Tsubaki's Hideout?"

Kagome agreed, obviously, and that night at Tsubaki's Hideout she had the Old West burger, like she'd originally wanted before switching to the Big Dog to spite Yura.

After that, it was a like a race to the finish line. Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango and Miroku went to Shikon Arcade one day after school, with Inuyasha and Kagome disappearing upstairs when the others were busy because Kagome claimed she wanted to take pictures together in some of the various photo booths. Fortunately, for Inuyasha's sake, Kagome wasn't _really_ that into the girlie photo booths so they only took a few pictures while they _both_ pretended to have a good time doing it. Kagome covertly explained via whisper only he could hear that she wanted to be able to whip out the pictures at school to show Sango, using them as a prop to gush about her growing feelings for him.

After the photo session, Inuyasha put his hanyou skills to the test to win Kagome a cute stuffed teddy bear from one of the prize machines before the two of them headed back downstairs and played a few rounds of Battle Birds of Paradise. He'd also planned ahead, having told Miroku and Sango that 'they' would meet them there when Miroku had asked after school about whether or not everyone wanted to hit the arcade, so Inuyasha had taken Kagome herself in his car, which had been an uneventful drive, but which also meant that afterwards, once it was time to go, he was able to be the one to take her home.

This time, he did not just sit in his car, keeping an eye on her as she walked to her visible apartment door from the parking lot. True, if anything had happened to Kagome the previous times he'd taken her home he could've been there in an _instant_ , because he _had_ watched until she'd safely gotten inside before leaving, but now that they were 'dating' Inuyasha did the honorable thing by personally escorting Kagome up to her apartment door. He'd stealthfully warned her in the car not to invite him in, just on the off chance of a neighbor overhearing, because he didn't want them quite at that stage yet. The proper thing would be to decline so he'd rather she just didn't ask, shyly clutching her teddy bear while thanking him for driving her home before ducking inside, and he'd smile like an idiot before walking back to his car. That was what he wanted so that was how Kagome played it, and as he walked back to his car with that stupid fake smile on his face he had to admit that Kagome was a _damn_ good actress.

Showing Sango the pictures from the arcade went according to plan, too, as both girls gushed about how cute and funny the pictures were, thanks to the various cartoon backgrounds and even hats Kagome had programmed the machine to add to their pictures. That night, Inuyasha took Kagome out to dinner again, at a slightly more upscale ramen place than Hungry Ninja Noodles.

When the night of the new moon came back around, Kagome asked Inuyasha if he wanted her, or them, to come over, like they had last time, but he told her he was fine, that he wasn't as much of a wreck as he'd been a month ago, promising her he'd eat something as he told her he was sure she'd appreciate having a night off. Of course, in reality there was nowhere else Kagome would've rather been than with Inuyasha during his most vulnerable time, the miko sure that it would've been better for him to have company than be alone with his thoughts, but after trying to hint at that on the phone and him only telling her once again that he was fine and wanted to be alone, she let it go, respecting his wishes. For the first time, even though they didn't know it, they both cried themselves to sleep that night.

The following day at school everything was fine, of course. Neither hanyou nor miko knew how truly upsetting the night before had been for the other person. All four friends had lunch at the ramen shop and then after class, even though Miroku didn't have to work, Inuyasha decided to let Miroku and Sango have a reprieve so that the monk and slayer could spend some alone time actually enjoying their very _real_ relationship while Inuyasha took Kagome for a walk through the mall. He would've happily bought her whatever she wanted but she politely said there was nothing she wanted, nothing she needed. Keeping in character she added cheesily that all she wanted and needed was his company.

When the weekend came back around Inuyasha actually drove Kagome _to_ her family shrine on Saturday morning, saying he had nothing else to do so he might as well, and just on the off chance that one of her neighbors saw them it would look good. He didn't hang around, knowing she had work to do, but having seen her that morning was all he needed to get him through the rest of the day on his own. Sango worked Saturday mornings and Miroku worked Saturday evenings so the two usually had lunch together at Miroku's apartment and he allowed them their alone time on that day, as well. He'd never butted in when he'd been with Kikyou and he didn't want to become a burden to his friends now, the lonely dumped guy they always needed to keep company because he didn't like being alone. He could be alone just fine, so long as it wasn't his human night and he had seeing Kagome do her archery the next day to look forward to.

When Sunday arrived he drove out earlier than he should have, but he stayed out of the way while Kagome worked her usual hours in the shrine's gift shop, which wasn't hard to do because Souta ended up asking him if he wanted to play video games. He also figured, since the boy would find out eventually anyway and would probably even be mad if he thought they'd been trying to keep it a 'secret' from him, that he might as well go ahead and tell Kagome's little brother that they were dating, to get Souta's reaction to the news. As predicted Souta was definitely pleased, even saying that back when he'd been dating Kikyou he'd wished he would dump Kikyou and get with Kagome instead. Inuyasha just laughed it off, and distracted the boy easily enough since they were still playing a game at the time, but in his head he found himself wondering just what was wrong with Souta to be so _happy_ over the notion of his sister dating a hanyou. He chalked it up to youthful ignorance, because Souta came from a good home and so he probably wasn't aware of the true extent of hatred that existed in their world.

At least Kagome was aware, and she was also prepared to tough it out, for his sake, which baffled him _slightly_ less when the time came for Kagome to demonstrate her archery skills. Holy shit but was that girl a killer with her arrows, literally, should a war actually break out although that would _hopefully_ never happen. But he understood a little more where her toughness came from, now. She turned fierce when she was shooting. This was a girl who'd take no crap from anyone. She wasn't shoot first, ask questions later, but if you wronged her and hers she would make damn sure you felt her wrath. As Inuyasha watched Kagome go through a prearranged routine, running and jumping, holding extra arrows in her shooting hand to fire as many as quickly as possible, as she hit various targets that were all scattered around in the part of the shrine that had been roped off years ago for her archery practice, Inuyasha was transported back in time. Currently dressed in traditional miko robes as she was, he could easily see her protecting a village back in Feudal times, her arrows striking either attacking youkai or even raiding human bandits. And she was using her powers. Her arrows glowed a bright pale blue as they soared through the air, the feeling tingling against his skin like mild static electricity as he watched from a safe distance. While he might be slightly less amazed, now, as to why it was that Kagome was willing to face down a world full of prejudice just to be his friend in his time of need, he was no less amazed by _her_ , as a person. In fact, his amazement had just about tripled. Quadrupled!

He told her so during the drive home that evening. Miroku's stories hadn't done her justice.

He told Miroku the same thing the next day at school, too, not just with the hope of it getting back to Kikyou but also just because, just generally speaking, he should be bragging about how awesome he thought Kagome was since they were 'dating' now. Besides, when it came to the bow, she was _freakin' awesome_ and he didn't care _who_ knew he felt that way. If they didn't believe him, they could go watch her do her routine, themselves.

"I _have_ done the occasional show at the shrine," she told him later, the miko not humble when it came to her archery skills because yeah, she knew she was bad ass.

"As well you should. You should sell tickets," he complemented with a chuckle as they sat together on a random bench on campus, just killing time until her last class of the day.

"Who'd want to go see some _freak_ show?" some random bitch asked sarcastically as she walked by just then, glaring disdainfully at the two of them. She didn't stick around for any kind of a response.

Inuyasha sighed, his ears lowering a tad as he glanced down at his feet.

"It starts."

Reaching over, Kagome grabbed his hand and gave it a quick squeeze before letting go, smiling when he looked up at her in surprise.

"I used to get that all the time from kids at school when I was a kid. For all we know, she really just thinks miko are freaks, and it didn't even have anything to do with me dating you," she told him reassuringly.

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?"

She giggled.

"Maybe not feel _better_ , to know that I get my own fair share of prejudice, but at least you know that I understand what _you_ go through, at least to a certain degree, and youcan better understand why I don't _care_ who might have something negative to say about our relationship."

He smiled at her.

"I was right, you're amazing."

Feeling her heart start to beat just a little bit faster as he looked at her like _that_ , Kagome quickly had to remind herself that he, at least, was only acting and didn't really feel that way.

Fortunately, since it really was nearly time for her last class of the day, she was able to play off her sudden increase in heart rate as she suddenly said, "Oh crap, what time is it?" while pulling out her cell phone. "Phew, five more minutes."

He chuckled, but then rose to his feet before helping her to stand as well.

"Better get going. I don't want you to be late," he stated honestly. "I'll see you this evening."

Even though she _wanted_ to groan, she beamed at him, instead, a bright fake smile that he _knew_ was fake that made him laugh even harder as he watched her walk away.

He'd asked her out to dinner earlier, to a _nice_ restaurant, a French style restaurant, and while she'd acted appropriately surprised she had secretly been grateful he'd at least warned her it was coming. When she'd publicly tried to wriggle out of it, telling him that she didn't have anything nearly nice enough to wear to a place like that, he'd stuck to the script by assuring her that she needn't worry, he'd buy her whatever she needed. Just to make a point, since they'd both known she would obviously say yes, Kagome had first added that she was _not_ dating him for his money, that he didn't have to buy her nice clothes or take her to fancy restaurants to make her like him, and he'd appreciated that she'd added that last part well within earshot of some of Kikyou's underlings, but then he'd 'insisted' as she'd known he would, telling her that he was _happy_ to spend the money on her, that he _wanted_ to buy her nice clothes and take her out to fancy restaurants, and knowing it was time, Kagome had 'happily' accepted.

It wasn't like she actually hated shopping. She was girlie enough to go gaga over the nice dress, and nice jewelry, and nice hair and makeup they did for her at the nice salon. Inuyasha had spared no expense and she felt like a pampered princess.

When they actually got to the nice restaurant she still felt like a princess from a fairy tale, with Prince Charming by her side, dressed as she was in a rich dark blue sequin gown with him in a matching black and dark blue suit. Everything was so perfectly picturesque that even the distasteful looks sent their way by a couple of the other patrons did nothing to sour her mood, especially when the wait staff greeted Inuyasha seemingly sincerely, calling him _Mr. Taisho_ before leading the two of them to their quiet, exclusive table in the back.

"In a place like this, they don't care if your blood is human or youkai just so long as it's blue," he told her quietly.

Of course, the very first time he'd brought Kikyou there there had _almost_ been an incident, when the maître d' had acted as if he'd thought they were posers, but thanks to his father Inuyasha had known how to act and what to say, and instead of losing his cool and causing a scene when the headwaiter had asked "May I _help_ you?" in a clipped tone, he had merely informed him of their reservation. The surname Taisho had been enough to do it because, even though they were in a human district, his family's various companies were just about always in the news, in _good_ ways. There were no scandals involving the Taisho name. Unless, of course, that restaurant had wanted to cause a racial incident by discriminating against Toga Taisho's youngest and mixed blood son.

Some had _tried_ to make Inuyasha's very existence a scandal, back when he'd been born, but there was really nothing there since Sesshoumaru's mother had been a business mating to produce an heir and they had been happily separated for many decades prior to Toga meeting Izayoi. The only scandal was that his second mate was a human, but other people had applauded the move, for someone as powerful as Toga Taisho to not care about image, to marry for love and not reject his hanyou son, instead expecting Inuyasha to take his rightful place in the company alongside his older half-brother. He was a beacon of hope to mixed families everywhere, who were slowly but surely becoming more and more commonplace.

So upon immediately realizing just who _Inuyasha Taisho_ was, the maître d' had bowed in apology for his initial rudeness before quickly showing them to their table, and he'd undoubtedly explained to the rest of the staff who he was because their entire meal had gone off without a hitch.

Now, as Inuyasha brought Kagome to the same restaurant, nobody _dared_ comment on the fact that he was with a different girl, and Kagome had just about the best time of her life. She'd been nervous, at first, that the place would be too stuffy, that she'd be afraid of embarrassing herself by the simplest thing, like accidentally clanking her western style silverware against the plate, but even though she was sure they were probably just faking their hospitality for propriety's sake the wait staff was fabulous and made the entire experience seem laid back and relaxing. It also helped that Kagome didn't feel like she had to be _in character_ for the time being, doing the layer upon layer of deception. There were no fellow students from Tama University there, nobody possibly listening in who might also then possibly inform Kikyou of what they'd heard. She could just be herself, but since it _was_ an intimate setting, she also didn't have to worry about toning it down to keep it in the realm of 'just friends' like she usually did. They _were_ on a date, after all, or at least the staff in the restaurant certainly thought so, so in Kagome's mind that meant she could act accordingly, which was no act at all.

After dinner, which had been topped off with an unbelievable dessert, it took Kagome until they were a couple of minutes into the car ride home to fully remind herself that as far as Inuyasha was concerned, they'd just been on a fake date.

"That. Food. Was. Amazing." Punctuating every word, Kagome met Inuyasha's eyes when he glanced her way for a second, offering him a grateful smile and nod.

"I knew you'd like it," he told her smugly, as he then proceeded to tell her about all of the other various restaurants he planned on taking her too over the next few weeks.

This time, she did groan, which only made him laugh of course.

"I'm going to spend some money on you and you're going to love it," he joked.

"Only if we also get to do what _I_ want to do," she countered then. "Fair's fair, and if we were _really_ dating you'd ask my opinion, and want to do what _I_ wanted," she emphasized.

He couldn't deny she had a valid point. While he didn't say it out loud in that moment, he was sure Kagome knew that, originally, it had been Kikyou who'd _wanted_ to go to all those fancy restaurants. He'd been happy to oblige, of course, foolishly believing his girl deserved whatever she wanted, but originally, back in the beginning, the restaurants definitely hadn't been his idea. He'd actually been afraid, at first, that they wouldn't even be welcome, until his father had told him not to be afraid to _tactfully_ throw his name around. Toga had definitely been right on that count, and he also hadn't seen anything wrong with Inuyasha wanting to treat Kikyou to such things since he felt the same way, always treating Izayoi, but the difference there was that Izayoi would've fallen in love with him even if he were broke. In fact, she hadn't even known he was rich, at first, just like Inuyasha knew Kagome had befriended him before finding out about his own money, and he also knew she wasn't even into fancy restaurants.

"Well, to be honest, I'm kinda doing the restaurant thing on purpose," he admitted then, earning a snort from the woman sitting to his left.

"Duh," she said simply, which had him laughing again.

She grinned despite herself, shaking her head a little.

"Okay, I get it," she added then. "You wanna pay me back for helping you out. You feel indebted to me, and okay, I admit it, dinner was fun, and I'm sure I'll have a good time at the other restaurants, too, and it _does_ make sense for you to want to drag me...I mean take me to such nice places."

He laughed again.

"But if you want realism then it can't look too much like you're trying to change me into something I'm not," she finished pointedly.

He clicked his tongue, nodding in agreement as her words rolled around in his head.

"So what'd you have in mind?" he asked her then. "If we were _really_ dating, what, as my new girlfriend, would _you_ want to do?"

"Maybe less expensive lunches or dinners to balance out all the fancy dinners?" she suggested. "Like at western chain places, like KFC or Pizza Hut?"

He nodded.

"Definitely doable," he said. "You know I'll eat anything," he added with a laugh.

"Oh, and karaoke!"

He balked at that one.

"Karaoke?"

She grinned rather evilly.

"Yup, karaoke. If you still insist on taking me out to _expensive_ restaurants, then I'm gonna to make _you_ sing for _my_ supper."

He sighed overdramatically but then said, "Deal."

When they got to her apartment Kagome thought she might actually be able to get Inuyasha to come inside this time, just to chat in real life because obviously they wouldn't be doing anything else, but there was no need, he said, since they had their game plan pretty well figured out. Now that the game was over for the night, Inuyasha jokingly stated that he was ready to crawl back into bed with his solitude until the light of day forced him to drag himself back out into the world of the living again. The fact that he could at least could joke about his own misery, now, was a good sign to Kagome, which at least gave her some hope. Inuyasha also told her to go ahead and tell Sango during their 'girl talk' routine that he'd kissed her goodnight, before he promptly turned around to head back to his car _without_ actually kissing her goodnight.

Kagome waited until after she was behind closed doors to sigh. Then very carefully stepping out of her black high heel shoes, she made her way into her bedroom and watched in her free standing oval full length mirror as she pulled down the discreet side zipper until the dress whooshed to the floor, leaving her standing in nothing but lacy black bra and panties.

She understood Inuyasha's lingering feeling of loneliness more than she figured he realizes. In fact, she understood it all: feeling unloved and unlovable, craving that closeness but fearing it would never happen. Maybe, one day, she'd know what it was like to have a man standing behind her, tenderly unzipping her dress for her, but she doubted it.

The next day at school there was nothing to indicate that Kagome wasn't her usual, cheerful self, of course, and she did indeed tell Sango, during their usual meeting time for girl talk those days, of Inuyasha kissing her goodnight when he dropped her off after dinner. When the guys had their version of the same conversation Miroku asked Inuyasha 'how far' he'd managed to get, enabling the seemingly appalled hanyou to explain that he'd _only_ kissed her goodnight at the door, and that he had _not_ gone inside her apartment, nor had he even tried to. He wasn't that way, and Kagome wasn't that way, and they were friends first, and he didn't want to rush into anything and ruin their friendship and to Miroku it was a lot of blah blah blah insert scripted lines here but he did appreciate that Inuyasha was trying his hardest to spare Kagome's reputation.

For the next few days it was much of the same, with the four of them again enjoying their routine lunch date at the noodle shop across from campus although now they tried to make it seem more like double dating, and then when the weekend came back around, while Inuyasha let Kagome take herself out to her family shrine on Saturday morning, when he came to pick her up late Sunday afternoon he took them out to a nice, normal dinner at Pizza Hut on the way home.

The next day, after school, Inuyasha even took Kagome to a karaoke place, where she proceeded to _own_ him with her absolutely flawless singing voice. Damn that girl had a set of pipes on her. The _next_ day, during lunch at Hungry Ninja Noodles, hanyou and miko decided to officially 'announce' to their friends that they'd both mutually figured they were past the supposedly experimental dating stage. They were now officially boyfriend and girlfriend.

"Well it's about time, if you ask me," Miroku said with a grin as he took a sip of his soda.

"We've only been dating for a couple of weeks, Miroku, sheesh," Kagome playfully complained before slurping a bite of her ramen.

"Yeah, but you've known each other _how_ long?"

Inuyasha gave the houshi a funny look, wondering just what he was trying to get at.

"You know, I wasn't exactly _available_ until only about two months ago," he pointed out.

"And even if I'd already felt this way about him," Kagome added carefully, "it wouldn't have been right to say anything while he was hurting."

Sango nodded thoughtfully to that, suspecting Kagome had put much more truth into that last statement than Inuyasha realized, although she too wondered what her boyfriend was trying to pull with his comment.

"I'm definitely glad you two didn't hook up on the rebound," she decided to say, in support of the ruse.

"Yeah," Inuyasha agreed. "Getting dumped kinda hurts, so I had to get over that pain, first, before my heart was ready to even start _thinking_ about getting back out there."

"I'm just glad that you finally realized that, sometimes, what you think you're missing has been right in front of you all along," Miroku stated wisely, making Kagome blush despite herself. She had no idea what Miroku was trying to pull, either, but if he actually suspected her real feelings on the subject she supposed it didn't really matter too much in that moment since what he'd said still worked just fine for their game, too.

"That's true," she decided to agree, as she turned and met Inuyasha's eyes, the hanyou sitting beside her on her left with Sango across from her and Miroku across from Inuyasha. "I don't know what it was that first made me realize I was falling."

Meeting and holding her gaze, Inuyasha fully believed Kagome was faking it, and he seamlessly played along as he responded with, "Me too. I don't know what it was, but just suddenly, I realized I was no longer feeling that void in my life, because you'd so expertly filled it without even trying."

"Would you two like to be alone?" Miroku teased then, which would have shattered the 'moment' happening between hanyou and miko had it been real. As it was, Inuyasha only pretended to act flustered, and then Kagome expertly changed the subject.

Just when she'd gotten good at the arm throwing technique they'd helped her learn, their martial arts circle just _had_ to go and start studying other moves she was also having trouble with, she playfully lamented, earning vows from both Inuyasha as well as Sango that they would help her with anything else she was having trouble getting the hang of.

"Maybe I should ask you to help me with my math, too, while we're at it," Kagome said to Inuyasha then, with a laugh of course, because she wasn't really intending for him to take her seriously. But he nodded all the same.

"If you need the help, absolutely," he promised.

"Uh-huh..." Miroku chimed back in then. "He's going to come over to your place to help you with your 'math,'" he said with air quotes.

"Sheesh, Miroku. Who do you think I am, _you?_ " Inuyasha shot back, earning a snorted laugh from Sango, who nearly choked on her soda.

"Besides, we can totally use the public library," Kagome added after her amusement over Sango's reaction died back down a little, her statement earning a nod of agreement from Inuyasha.

It wasn't that either of them didn't trust themselves to be alone in one of their apartments just the two of them. If it was to help Kagome with her math then that's all they would be doing, end of discussion. But why waste a perfectly good opportunity to be lovey-dovey in plain view of other students?

Fortunately, the beeping of Miroku's alarm on his cellphone prevented any of them from needing to come up with yet another topic of conversation, as it was time to finish up their lunch and head back across the street to school before the houshi was late for his next class. That afternoon after school they went to the arcade again, for a couple of hours, where Kagome thankfully did not torture Inuyasha with more pictures in any of the photo booths. He was happy to win her another stuffed animal, though. Then later that evening it was time to meet up with their circle at, of all places, a karaoke hangout, but Inuyasha kept his smile on like a trouper, and after a few people jokingly pressured him into it he even sang a cheesy duet with Kagome, after they made their second relationship announcement, letting everyone from their martial arts circle know they were officially together. Everyone accept Kikyou, of course, who was thankfully a no-show to that event as well, but Inuyasha knew she'd find out soon enough.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

As the days got colder and shorter, our friends hung out at the arcade after class less often, but they still always tried to go to their circle's after school outings, even when Miroku couldn't make it because he had to work. Sometimes Sango still went with them, and sometimes, when she felt like making a special dinner for when Miroku got home, since they each had a key to the other's apartment, Inuyasha and Kagome would go on their circle's outings alone, just the two of them. Of course, not all of those get-togethers were blessedly Kikyou-free, but the hanyou and his 'new girlfriend' played it off like champs, everyone buying their happy couple routine, which really got under Kikyou's skin, even though she refrained from saying anything nasty while the lot of them were out in public. She even wore her own fake smile most of the time, but Inuyasha could smell the anger coming off of her in waves. That, of course, only made _him_ smile all the more.

As predicted, as Halloween neared Kagome was deep into her plans for what she and Inuyasha would be wearing as a couple. He'd never really cared much for Halloween, truth be told. It was a human holiday; the youkai of the world had always found it silly that one night out of the year humans would dress up as _them_ and it was somehow considered 'fun,' yet on a day-to-day basis most humans would rather not associate with youkai in their daily lives. Growing up in a human district, he'd also had the 'pleasure' (insert sarcasm here) of being teased by his fellow classmates _every single year_ that he was already _in_ costume, or that he was 'born ready for Halloween' or any other such variation thereof. For Kagome, though, and for the sake of their ruse, he would go along with it. Knowing how he felt, she'd promised to come up with the _perfect_ costume idea. One that had absolutely _nothing_ to do with the fact that he was half youkai, but yet also one that would make use of his claws and fangs rather than them spoiling the illusion.

He was just glad that Kikyou hadn't been into Halloween. Stupid bitch would've probably had him wearing a collar and leash otherwise. His stupid ass would have probably agreed to it, too. Anything to make her happy.

Looking back on his time with Kikyou filled him with disgust those days, but Inuyasha supposed that was a vast improvement over crippling depression and loneliness. He'd since come to the conclusion that he didn't need love and he no longer cared. Or at least, as Miroku would say, all things happened for a reason, as they're meant to, or some other such Buddhist nonsense along those lines. The point was, he had decided to just take life one day at a time, and any life that had Kagome in it as his best friend, no matter how lonely he was in the _love_ department, was definitely better than life before Kagome, so he would take whatever he could get.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

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The next couple of months seemed to zip on by. Everyone fell into a comfortable routine and the days were spent mostly the same way. Now that they were supposedly boyfriend and girlfriend, Inuyasha always picked Kagome up at her apartment before school. It wasn't _that_ far of a walk to Tama University from her apartment complex, but it was the principle of the thing. The four of them always got together for lunch between classes, and still occasionally hit the arcade together afterwards on the days Miroku had that evening off, but if he had to work then he and Sango would go their separate way after school, leaving hanyou and miko to their own devices. Either way, Inuyasha always drove Kagome in his car, and always took her home afterwards, either from the arcade or straight from school. Except for the times he and her went somewhere fun for a cheap early dinner, first, like one of the western fast food chain places she loved so much.

Even though he loved taking her to the fancy restaurants, she'd made a valid point about also doing what _she_ wanted to do on occasion, both in real life, and as if she were his girlfriend and he were accommodating her for _that_ reason. Besides, it wasn't like he was really all that hoity-toity. On the contrary, he preferred fast junk food, too; it was just seeing her getting all dolled up in the pretty gowns that he loved so much when it came to taking her out to the nicer places, and she thankfully still humored him...on occasion. To be fair, though, he also let her have _her_ turn dressing _him_ up, when it came to Halloween, because she had the two of them going as classic western style vampires. We're talking Dracula era. Black pants and boots, white long sleeve shirt with dark red vest, and a large red lined black cape with standing collar. The only thing that broke with strict tradition was his hair, which she'd stuffed into a long _black_ wig, but she'd made a very good point when she'd said that a _short_ wig would've revealed the fact that he had no human ears on the sides of his head. The long wig, along with dark brown contact lenses, made him look just like he did on his human night, save for his fangs and claws. She had _fake_ fangs and claws to match, and wore a black Gothic dress and high heels.

He had to admit, he hadn't thought he'd have a good time on Halloween, but he'd been wrong.

On the days their circle actually got together to practice judo he also happily assisted Kagome with all her moves, Sango offering a second set of hands if they were needed. Inuyasha also kept his word to help Kagome with her math, so a couple of days a week they spent about an hour sitting together on display in the library while Kagome went over her latest work with him, and he helped her to figure out where she'd messed up on the equations her teacher had marked incorrect. On Saturdays he let her take the train to the Higurashi Shrine but came to pick her back up on Sundays, usually arriving before her shift ended which was fine; he played video games with her brother to pass the time while she finished up, and stayed for dinner whenever her mother insisted.

In nearly every way, he seemed like the perfect boyfriend, and it was only when the two of them were alone that he dropped the lovey-dovey routine, but even then he was still fun for Kagome to be around, his original depression over the breakup thankfully a thing of the past. He did come inside now whenever he dropped her off at her apartment, both of them agreeing that they needed to kick up the supposed intimacy of their relationship. While Kagome didn't think she had nosy neighbors, per se, a lot of the people in her building _did_ go to Tama U, so it was better to err on the side of caution. It wasn't awkward for the miko to be alone with him inside her apartment for a few hours, Inuyasha usually staying until it was time for Kagome to go to bed. They talked during those evenings. Really talked. Like they had during their first few drives together in Inuyasha's car when he'd first started to act like he was starting to _like_ her. He thanked her often, for being willing to do this for him, telling her some of the things he'd started to overhear on campus, not from anyone they knew but just random students who were disgusted by their relationship. His words of gratitude had her telling him over and over again that she didn't mind, that she didn't care what people who weren't her friends thought of her, but she didn't mind him thanking her, either, and always told him it was fine with a laugh, her patience with him on the matter never wearing thin. If he kept on thanking her she would just keep on telling him that she was happy to do it, and mean it just as sincerely every time, no matter what either of them might overhear at school.

When he'd asked her, once, with a playfully suspicious brow raised, _why_ she was so okay with it, what was in it for her, she'd thrown on her best fake smile and said, "Why, fancy dresses and dinners, of course."

That had successfully lightened the mood as he'd laughed, knowing it wasn't true. He had no idea why Kagome really _was_ willing to put up with so much, but maybe that was just what best friends were for. They were there for _each_ _other_ , no matter what. Indeed, if Kagome ever needed something from him, anything, Inuyasha couldn't imagine that he'd turn her down. He'd even tried to imagine, once, what he would've done if their situation had been reversed. If she'd been dumped by a boyfriend who'd turned out to only be using her, and she'd then believed herself wholly unlovable as a result, and the ex-boyfriend seemed to gloat in her misery every day, would he have been willing to pretend to be her new boyfriend to wipe that smirk off the asshole's face? Hell yeah. Would he have lived for the moments when he could put a genuine smile, however fleeting, on _Kagome's_ face? Absolutely. Would he have given a damn if some of the kids at school started talking crap about him behind his back because dating Kagome was somehow considered taboo? Absolutely not. So no, as he'd thought about it, it wasn't quite so mysterious, after all, why she was willing to do all of that and more for him. That was simply what best friends did.

After making that revelation, he tried not to thank her quite so often, because even though he could tell it didn't bother _her_ he was starting to feel a little silly saying the same thing over and over again. She knew he was grateful to her. It wasn't like she was going to forget if he stopped expressing it quite so often.

They also discussed Kikyou, sometimes. Another thing he really appreciated about Kagome, besides her willingness to pretend to be his girlfriend, was her willingness to really _listen_ , as his friend, when he needed to get things off his chest. While showing too much emotion around Miroku and Sango was still somewhat embarrassing, he could fully open up around Kagome and it didn't bother him. He explained to her that while he did not miss _Kikyou_ , at least not any longer, he missed the lie. He missed the blissful ignorance of thinking he was in a loving relationship. Going through the motions now was different, since he _knew_ it was a lie, and while he assured Kagome that he cared about her tremendously as his best friend and he _did_ enjoy hanging out with her, there was obviously a line of intimacy that friends could not cross.

She hadn't been able to dispute that claim without admitting to things she hadn't been prepared to admit, but he had made a tremendous leap forward, as far as she was concerned, when she'd asked him if he regretted the truth coming out, if he wished Kikyou had stayed with him instead, keeping the lie going, and he'd told her no. Explaining that he'd thought about it already, he'd told her that he wanted _real_ love, what he'd _thought_ he'd had, so hypothetically, should another gold digger come around, telling him plain to his face that she would act the part of a loving girlfriend, even a loving _wife_ , and would make no qualms about his inu-youkai heritage, he would tell her to get lost. He didn't want someone just using him for his money, and he didn't deserve it. Despite what Kikyou had said, he deserved to be loved, truly loved. He accepted that now, and he'd told Kagome that if both she and his mother thought that there was somebody out there for him then he would believe it, too. It was just going to be a lonely existence until he found her.

Trying not to cry, Kagome had told him how _proud_ she was of him, even as she'd mentally berated herself for chickening out when she could've used that moment to confess to him that there was a woman who loved him right now. Maybe she would tell him the truth, one day, but not now.

Telling her then that she made the wait bearable, that while he was still lonely in the love department at least he wasn't lonely in life, thanks to her, Kagome hadn't been able to keep a few rogue tears from falling, but she'd managed to make him laugh when she'd cracked a joke about her own 'stupid girlie, human emotions' before telling him how much his words really meant to her.

He'd promised her then that he'd make a genuine effort to not whine about how lonely he was, knowing it had to be upsetting for her to hear, and maybe not only from a standpoint of her heart aching for him in his time of need. He'd apologized as he'd admitted that it hadn't even occurred to him, at first, that by pretending to be his girlfriend she had taken herself off the market. She had to be lonely, too, he acknowledged, putting finding her own love on hold for his sake, and thanking her for that sacrifice, as well, he'd told her she was the very best friend that any guy could ask for, hanyou or no, and that he knew he was the luckiest hanyou, probably the luckiest _man_ on the planet, to have a friend as awesome as she was.

In less emotionally heartfelt moments they also spent a lot of their alone time in her apartment strategically discussing the fake details of their fake relationships, hanyou and miko coming to an agreement on 'how far' they should or shouldn't have gotten with each other on any given night. While it was a bit of an awkward moment in the conversation, Inuyasha told Kagome one night of how he'd managed to never hurt Kikyou with his fangs while kissing her, so if anyone should say anything negative to her about kissing a boy with fangs, since they were supposed to be at that level of their relationship now where they supposedly spent these nights in her apartment making out, she could go ahead and defend that he knew what he was doing, he knew how to kiss with his fangs, and had never nicked her lip even once.

Kagome had _almost_ been brave enough, or perhaps foolish enough, to jokingly suggest that he really kiss her, just once, so that she could speak from personal experience, but instead, she'd made a joke about how she was sure he also knew how to _touch_ her without hurting her with his _claws_ , once they supposedly got to _that_ level of their relationship, so she'd make sure to brag about his skills accordingly. He'd blushed hotly as she'd laughed, then glared at her playfully, about the same way she had glared at _him_ when he'd originally promised to take her to expensive restaurants, which of course had only made her laugh harder. Glad she had at least managed to break the awkwardness between them, because he hadn't really felt comfortable talking about the intimate things he'd done with Kikyou, he'd then gotten Kagome back by promising that, when the time was right, she could tell Sango _all_ about his skills with his claws if she wanted to.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Inuyasha had trouble remembering the last time he'd had so much fun. Maybe the first time he'd taken his friends to Disneyland, after surprising them with the fact that he had more than enough money to spoil all three of them rotten? That was a close second, at least. As it was, while Disneyland itself hadn't been part of the equation over the last two months he'd definitely still enjoyed himself, hanging out with Kagome and the others, and he _did_ plan on treating everyone to Disneyland again during winter break. He owed them, all of them, for actually pulling him out of his funk when, originally when he'd concocted _the plan,_ he'd honestly thought he would still be a miserable walking pile of depression four months later. For _years_ later. Now, if Kikyou had been a fabulous, loving girlfriend, and then she'd died in some kind of tragic accident, then in that case he was sure he _would_ still be sad, but there was really no reason to be sad and moping in this case. Just because Kikyou was a stupid bitch he was going to let that ruin _his_ life?

 _I don't think so_ , he thought, smiling, as he headed over to Kagome's apartment to pick her up before school.

Kagome...

Inuyasha had been having so much fun hanging out with Kagome lately that he'd nearly forgotten she was his pretend girlfriend more than once. Not that he'd done something stupid and embarrassing like actually try to _kiss_ her because it'd been the 'pretend' part he'd forgotten about. He'd just forgotten about the 'girlfriend' part because she was his _friend,_ even though it turned out she could really, really kick his ass in the new first person shooter game at Shikon Arcade. Her laughter had been worth the blow to his manliness when he'd told her don't worry, he was still her friend, even though he was never, _ever_ going to play that game with her _ever_ again.

Aside from the arcade and karaoke places he'd also taken her to the movies a few times over the last couple of months, and he thanked whichever kami was responsible for the fact that Kagome was _not_ into chick flicks. She'd also continued to indulge him, because fair was fair, and so since he had _sung_ for her _supper_ as she'd put it by letting her drag him to various karaoke places, he had most definitely taken her out to eat an an array of 'fancy pants' restaurants, as she called them. She now had an entire closet full of expensive, non-refundable, sequinned or beaded dresses in various lengths and colors.

Thinking about the times he'd taken her shopping made him smile again. At first, she'd tried to claim she could just always wear the same original dress, especially if he took her to a different restaurant every time, but while it was true that the wait staff wouldn't know, what if fellow patrons from one restaurant just coincidentally happened to be at a different restaurant at the same time as them? He was a _Taisho_ ; he could damn well make sure his girlfriend had a respectable selection of gowns and shorter cocktail length dresses. And purses and shoes to go with them, of course. She'd put her foot down when it came to jewelry, insisting it would be perfectly acceptable to wear the modest diamond necklace and earrings set he'd purchased for her for their first dinner at any subsequent dinners, and realizing he'd better agree with her if he knew what was good for him, the amused hanyou had let the matter drop.

"What are you thinking about?" Kagome asked as she came out to his car as soon as he pulled up, trying not to laugh at the dopey grin on his face.

"Just what a wonderful experience it is taking you shopping."

Rolling her eyes, she got into the car and said, "You better not be planning any _more_ shopping trips."

He chuckled.

"Well, Christmas _is_ coming up pretty soon..."

"Inuyasha..."

"All right all right!" Not having pulled out onto the street yet, he was able to lift both hands off the wheel and into the air as if in surrender, which made her laugh as well that time.

Arriving at school a few short minutes later, he took a moment to look her way as they sat together in his car. It still amazed him, all that she was willing to do for him, although he tried not to thank her too often anymore. He had even been worried, at first, that he was taking advantage of her friendship, even though she had volunteered. True, he would never ask her to do anything scandalously like actually kiss in public, although she _had_ started holding his hand on occasion which had made him blush crimson the first time she'd done it. But again, she had done it voluntarily. He'd been worried, at first, that this whole routine might accidentally put a strain on their friendship, and risking his friendship with Kagome was the _last_ thing he wanted to do, but now, looking back on the last few months, he realized the two of them had only grown closer together.

In fact, sometimes he worried that his feelings had crossed the line at one point, but he wasn't prepared to actually worry about that _too_ much. He wished he had someone to talk to, but he'd still not filled his mother in on the goings on, and he didn't _dare_ confide in Miroku because he would tell Sango and she would tell Kagome. He just needed to figure it out for himself. Was what he felt for Kagome real, or was it just his loneliness trying to point out that she could be used to fill that void? But within the alternate universe of _the plan_ where they were an item, he had told her he was not using her as a substitute for Kikyou, and he would be _damned_ if he actually did in real life. He would get his head on straight, and in the meantime he would just keep reminding himself that it was only a game. He was just having a little trouble telling fantasy from reality, sometimes. But he wasn't confused about where _her_ feelings lied. He knew she only thought of him as a friend, and he would _not_ risk ruining that friendship by foolishly allowing his heart to start believing in their make-believe.

That was his problem, and he would not burden her with it. Maybe, after their plan had run its course, and they 'broke up' in a couple months so as not to have to keep the deception going on forever, then, after a cooling off period, he could ask her out for real. As far as the school would have to know, they could say they'd given their relationship 'a break' because they weren't sure how they really felt, but then decided to get back together again. It was a nice fantasy, but definitely a worry for another day.

Right in that moment, with the way Kagome was starting to give him a curious look, Inuyasha abruptly realized he'd been staring at her for too long and scrambled to come up with a believable excuse.

"Sorry, didn't mean to zone out on you. I was just thinking about Christmas again, and wanting to get you something with rubies and emeralds in it."

She sighed, exasperated, and as she rolled her eyes he secretly, mentally sighed in relief.

"Why do you insist upon buying me stuff?" she asked. "It's weird." She spoke quietly enough to ensure they wouldn't be overheard. It also helped that the car windows were rolled up.

Inuyasha knew what she meant. She wasn't _really_ his girlfriend, so doting on her was probably making her uncomfortable. Knowing he couldn't risk her accidentally catching on to his developing feelings, if he just told her the truth, that he loved buying her things, he had the perfect excuse.

"Because I think it's funny how it weirds you out," he said, which was also true, so he wasn't really lying. "Any other girl in a fake relationship with her millionaire best friend would probably be going gaga over the chance to get a bunch of free jewelry no strings attached." He laughed, but then offered her a tender smile. "I appreciate it, though, that you don't see this as an opportunity to get expensive presents. Even when it comes to _the plan_ you aren't using me for my money. So...thank you."

He felt like playfully adding, _"But if I want to buy you something you're damn well going to accept it!"_ but thought better of it. They'd already had that conversation, and he knew she would accept anything he bought her, but also knowing she didn't want him to buy her anything too over the top, that it made her uncomfortable, he would try to tone it down a bit for her sake.

Getting out of the car, then, he headed around his car to meet Kagome as she exited the passenger side.

"Ready?" he asked.

Kagome flashed him her biggest, brightest smile, before reaching out and grasping his left hand in her right.

"Ready," she answered, giving his hand a squeeze for good measure.

Blushing a little despite himself, because in their culture holding hands was a pretty public show of affection and one that always gave him a funny feeling in his stomach whenever she did it, he nonetheless smiled back, and Kagome watched in fascination as his genuine shyness morphed into the false bravado he'd gotten used to displaying. Now, he appeared for all the world like a happy man happily holding his girlfriend's hand, but it was only an appearance.

Keeping her own smile bright, Kagome walked hand in hand with Inuyasha onto campus, deliberately ignoring the few nasty looks sent their way although she offered friendly nods towards everyone who smiled back. It was just the two of them at the moment, as it was every morning, so the fact that they were 'boyfriend and girlfriend' was made even more obvious than later in the day when they got together with Sango and Miroku. The houshi was around there somewhere, his first class of the day being a study on Buddhist literature and writing ofuda, but since Sango spent her mornings at her family's dojo her first class of the day was Inuyasha's second. They didn't bother trying to track down Miroku. Instead, Inuyasha escorted Kagome to her math class before heading for his business class, head held high.

He could hear the whispers, same as every other day. It looked as if their hard work building things up slowly had paid off; while some people did not approve of their relationship, others did, were happy for them even, but so far, he'd never heard eve one murmur accusing them of faking it. Some people speculated that Kagome was only with him for his money, but that was different. Even the ones who thought _she_ was faking it seemed to have no idea he was actually in on it.

After business class he met up with Kagome, who'd gotten out of her math class about ten minutes earlier and was waiting for him outside on a nearby bench. The concrete pathways on campus that led from building to building wound through wide patches of landscape where many students gathered between classes, sitting out in the sun or, in hotter weather, under the shade of trees, either studying their text books or working on other projects. Today, some art students were sketching, pairs from a theatre group were rehearsing their lines, and there was even one random student from the kendo club going through a kata with a wooden practice sword. Spotting Kagome, the miko looking like a Christmas card sitting there in her large forest green sweater and dark red wool pants, a dormant, leafless tree standing protectively behind her, he stealthily took out his phone and snapped a picture. The only thing missing was snow, but maybe he could add that in on his computer.

"Hi!" Kagome greeted enthusiastically as soon as she spotted him, waving him over.

Smiling despite himself at her overly cheerful demeanor, Inuyasha mentally sighed as he approached, feeling a kind of kinship with the theatre kids since this public scene was also staged, although they hadn't worked out an actual script so it was really more like improv than being in a play. They just always tried to make it a point of being seen together.

Sitting at her left, he sat close enough to reveal their supposed closeness but far enough away to be respectable. He also sat at a bit of an angle to her, stretching his right arm out behind her on the top of the bench that so he could more easily turn enough to face her as they spoke.

"So how did the exam go?" he asked as he got comfortable, knowing she'd had a test that morning. At least his curiosity was honest.

"I think I'm numerically dyslexic," Kagome sighed, before chuckling and waving it off as unimportant. "Oh well, at least I don't really need advanced math to be a reiki coach."

"That's true," he acknowledged.

Her math class was just a remedial class to help her with her personal areas of struggle. The rest of her courses were about the spiritual and scientific aspects of reiki, the differences and similarities between reiki and youki, and more general information regarding how to properly teach young children, just generally speaking.

"Are you going to work in a reiki school, or try to start your own class out of the Higurashi shrine?" he asked, just to keep the conversation going. He already knew what she planned on doing.

"Oh, definitely starting my own," she said. "Since I've got an especially strong ability to sense even the faintest hint of reiki in people, I figured my best contribution to society would be as a talent scout, of sorts," she explained as if for the first time, also knowing that she and Inuyasha needed some kind of 'safe' conversation while in such a public setting. "I won't work for a particular school, but I'll have my teaching license, I'll be on the board, and I'll register the Higurashi shrine as a reiki school so we can legally accept young students. Then, I'll start going around to the regular elementary schools looking for any potential reiki users, doing one-on-ones with them and their families to explain everything and, hopefully, pick them up as a student."

"You'll do fabulously," he complemented, 'lovingly' brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear, and blushing a little, she thanked him for having so much faith in her.

It really was something she felt very passionately about.

Being from a shrine family, her parents had actually suspected she would have the gift, so the discovery had not come as a shock to anyone, and her parents had been thrilled, but her own joy in learning she had the same power as her father and grandfather had been short lived, at first. She figured she would be able to help any children she discovered to adjust to the possibly unwanted news because she knew first hand how hard it could be, and how scary, for young children to discover they were different. Rare. Special. She'd been called worse by her classmates during her own elementary school days. Snob. Goody two-shoes. _Freak_. So she could relate to Inuyasha better than most, too, since as a kid, at least, she'd felt like an outcast among 'normal' humans, while being a miko surely meant that youkai would hate and fear her, or so her teacher at the time would've had her believe.

The truth of the matter, she'd learned later through Sango and her family's extensive study of youkai, was that while thousands of years ago reiki users might've been nature's way to even the playing field, back when youkai were killing humans left and right and miko and houshi were their sworn enemies, these days most youkai actually respected reiki users. They were considered the human equivalent to daiyoukai; the most powerful among their own kind. There were still a few small and conservative shrines, however, that taught that humans and youkai shouldn't mix, _at all,_ and that reiki users were the saviors of mankind, created by the kami to protect against the perceived taint of the demonic. Strongly disagreeing with that philosophy, Kagome wanted to do her part to make sure the next generation of miko and houshi were raised _right_ , to know that human or youkai, or hanyou, it made no difference. They were _all_ created by the kami, and while they had been enemies, once, so too had different human governments at one time, or different clans of youkai. That was in the past, but they had, hopefully, learned from their past so that such mistakes would never be made again.

"And with you by my side, it'll be even easier for my students to learn how youkai and hanyou are really no different from us humans," she added.

"Oh yeah?" he replied with playful sarcasm as he purposefully wiggled his ears back and forth, making her giggle. He grinned.

"We're the same where it counts most," she argued with a smile of her own as she reached up without really thinking about it and playfully tweaked his right ear with her left hand.

It was over in an instant, and Kagome probably wouldn't even have realized she'd done it if not for the shell shocked look on Inuyasha's face, a blush that he obviously wasn't faking staining his cheeks as he averted his eyes.

Realizing then that she'd never touched his ears before, ever – _wanting_ to for years and dreaming about it didn't count – Kagome felt heat rush to her own cheeks as she tried to play it off in a way that wouldn't blow their cover, so to speak. While nobody was necessarily paying them _close_ attention they were in a rather public setting at the moment, so they couldn't break character.

"Sorry," she whispered quietly, knowing those adorable and forbidden ears of his would be the only ones to hear her faintly uttered apology. She would apologize again later, and perhaps suggest they lay some ground rules so she would know what was and wasn't permitted, once they were alone.

To Inuyasha's credit, though, he got over his initial shock rather quickly. It had just caught him off guard because nobody besides his mother had ever touched his ears before, and she'd only done so when he was a child. That was _another_ red flag, now that he thought about it. For as often as he and Kikyou had made out in private, and as often as she'd told him his ears didn't bother her in the slightest, she'd never once actually touched them. But she'd also never once smelled of deceit, so the little bitch had been damn good at lying.

Well, it had been true in a _way_ , because she wouldn't have let a little thing like his ears get in the way of his money, if they had been his worst deformity, and so from that perspective she'd been telling the truth. His father had warned him about con men who could lie with the truth, a term Kagome also used. He couldn't rely on _just_ on his nose to tell him who was or wasn't being honest in the business world, but at the time it'd never even occurred to him to not take Kikyou at her word.

Another lesson learned, he supposed.

As far as Kagome's little slip in that moment went, though, after realizing that nobody appeared to have noticed, or at least, nobody was staring at them and none of the nearby conversations he could hear were about them, Inuyasha immediately decided to both use it to his advantage and set her mind at ease at the same time. He could tell how nervous she was now, probably afraid that she'd upset him in some way, especially if that faintly whispered apology was anything to go by, so he would let her know there was nothing to be sorry about.

"Heh, just can't keep your hands off 'em, can you?" Reaching up with his right hand to rub the ear that still tingled from the memory of her touch, he said, "I wouldn't be surprised if you told Sango all about how much you love the stupid things, as crazy as you are, but I wouldn't want you any other way."

He followed it up with a wink when he was sure no one was looking, and he could smell it the instant Kagome's nervousness left her. She nodded, then, letting him know she got the deeper meaning. It was okay to add mention of how soft and fuzzy and adorable his ears were to her non-private girl talk sessions with Sango.

Thinking about it a moment, Inuyasha realized he had the perfect gift for Kagome for Christmas. Instead of buying her jewelry she didn't want, or another dress she didn't want, or dragging her out to eat at a restaurant she didn't want to eat at, they could just hang out in her apartment same as they'd been doing in the evenings and he would let her rub his ears. It sounded silly, but he knew she really did like them, and she clearly _wanted_ to touch them, but she'd hardly gotten much of a feel in so he would let her go all out for a few minutes and get it out of her system. The hard part, now, was just going to be waiting three weeks.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

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Glad it was Friday, since Kagome always looked forward to heading home for the weekend, plus there was only one more week before Christmas and she always got happier the closer it got to her favorite holiday, she went through school that day with a cheerful attitude that the others found infectious when they all got together for their usual lunch date. Since Miroku had to work that evening, not to mention all the hangout places would be especially packed on a Friday, which Inuyasha would rather avoid whenever possible, it was agreed that the four of them wouldn't do anything together after class. Their martial arts circle was having a get-together, but nobody else from the circle would mind it if they didn't attend. In fact, the hard truth was that _some_ of them would probably be delighted by their absence, not that Kagome or the others truly gave a rat's ass what Kikyou's band of haters thought of them. At least some of the guys were nice and Inuyasha was slowly getting used to the idea of having other guy friends in addition to Miroku. Maybe, one day, he and the monk would even 'hang out with the guys' and do something without the women, but there was no hurry for anything like that.

With Inuyasha's last class of the day letting out sooner than the rest of them, the hanyou usually waiting for her out by his car rather than in the school on such days so as to avoid having to hear quite so many crude jokes about him being a loyal puppy waiting for his mistress, such was the case on that day as Kagome got out of her last class and changed into her street shoes. Heading outside and towards the parking lot by herself, figuring the others would probably just head that way too and they'd all meet up at Inuyasha's car, Kagome sensed Kikyou's approaching reiki before she saw her. Pausing a moment and closing her eyes, Kagome mentally prepared herself for whatever it was going to be _this_ time, and by the time Kikyou rounded the corner, along with Kagura, Yura, Abi, Botan and Momiji, Kagome was all smiles.

Her inner dialog helped her keep the smile from looking too forced.

 _Too afraid to face me one-on-one, huh?_

Inwardly, she found that fact quite amusing.

"Oh, hi Kikyou," she greeted politely as soon as Inuyasha's ex made it obvious Kagome was her target destination. She deliberately made her voice extra sweet and friendly because she knew it irked the other miko.

As expected, Kikyou's eyes narrowed a little more at Kagome's attitude, but not about to be distracted, knowing _the slut_ (as Kikyou thought of Kagome in her mind) was doing it on purpose to get to her, Kikyou said what she'd come to say.

"At first I thought you two might have just been pretending," she started, and Kagome immediately schooled her features, not about to let a wayward nervous lip bite give herself away although her friendly smile was gone now as she instead just stared blankly at Kikyou, as if silently telling her to get to the point. "But nobody would risk letting their reputation get destroyed by dating a hanyou unless there was something in it for them," she added then. "I know that first hand."

Kagome shifted her stance a little, her posture suggesting she was bored. "Is there a point to this?" she asked quietly, not caring so much about their growing audience as she was Inuyasha overhearing them.

She couldn't see his parking spot from her current position, one of the buildings being in the way, but she was sure he was waiting for her at his car, and while if he were human he wouldn't hear anything from them unless their conversation turned into a full blown yelling match, Kagome wasn't sure just _how_ good his demonic hearing actually was. If he was distracted with his own conversation, if Sango and Miroku had already joined him and they were chatting while they waited for her, then he might not notice. But if he was standing there quietly...

She hoped he wasn't listening, wanting to spare him from whatever cruel things Kikyou was about to say, but no matter what, she would hold up her end of the bargain. It sounded like while Kikyou _had_ thought they might be faking their relationship, she no longer felt that way, but it also sounded like she was still trying to imply that she was just using him for his money, which Kagome had already told her wasn't true more than once. No matter what, she would stick to the script. Whether Kikyou thought she was using him for his money, or even if Kikyou still tried to accuse their entire relationship of being a fraud he was _in_ on, calling their bluff as it were, Kagome would maintain her position that she and Inuyasha were in a committed, loving relationship, that was _not_ about his money.

"The _point_ ," Kikyou said then, as if Kagome were mentally slow and she had to spell everything out for her, "is that you were obviously lying when you said you weren't using him for his money."

 _And there it is_ , Kagome thought, her expression still blank.

"In fact," Kikyou continued, "you're even more desperate than _I_ was, since word has it you've crossed the line I wouldn't."

 _And there_ _that_ _is_.

Kagome had been wondering how long it would take for Kikyou to snap at _that_ news.

"Jealous?" she teased, not letting Kikyou answer before she continued. "Even if I really _were_ only with Inuyasha for his money, which for the bazillionth time I'm _not_ , because I _love_ him, and I _would_ love him even if he were broke, although I know that's a concept too foreign for you to grasp, what difference does it really make to _you_ one way or the other?" she asked, her tone dripping with disdain. "It's not like _you_ care about him and are actually concerned for his well being, so why are you so obsessed with our relationship? You're acting like _he's_ the one who dumped _you_ and you can't get him out of your head."

Several amused snickers came from the gathering crowd at her words. While most of the student body would probably not be willing to date a hanyou, themselves, most people also had the attitude of to each his (or in this case her) own. They did not _hate_ Kagome for her relationship with 'the hanyou' although they did crinkle their noses amongst themselves and wonder just what on Earth she could possibly see in him. Then there were the more liberal, more open minded students of Tama U who fully supported Kagome's relationship with him, saying things like _"You go girl!"_ whenever they saw her. The other minority, the ones who really thought intermixing was not only disgusting but an affront to the kami, were really no bigger fans of Kikyou because she'd dated him, too, and to some of them, being willing to date him just because he was rich was an even bigger offense than actually loving him, because while the latter was disgusting in a simpler way, the former made her a prostitute in their eyes. Her only redeeming quality, to some, like her clique of fellow gold diggers, was that she had, in fact, drawn the line at intimate physical contact. It was no wonder then, in Kagome's mind, why Kikyou was so desperate to get the rest of the school to believe that Kagome was an even worse version of herself, that she, too, was merely a gold digger, but not just a gold digger, an actual _whore,_ willing to _have sex_ with the freak for an even bigger payday.

Mentally, Kagome sighed, and when Kikyou responded, she actually had to resist the urge to reach up and pinch the bridge of her nose.

"It's not fair," Kikyou hissed, the girl obviously humiliated by the way at least some of the gathering crowd appeared to be on Kagome's side. "You had no right to-"

"To what?" Kagome interrupted, getting more pissed off by the second. "You broke up with him. _You_ broke up with _him_. That means he was free to get with me if he wanted. Do you really think that just because your master plan didn't work out, a decision that _you_ made, that it means he somehow doesn't deserve a chance to find realhappiness?"

"His happiness with you isn't any more real than it was with me and you know it," Kikyou shot back, making Kagome roll her eyes. Some of the people who saw Kagome's reaction laughed again, but Kikyou's friends stood beside her in full support.

"You can't honestly expect us to believe that you two just up and fell for each other," Kagura said.

"Tell us the _truth_ ," Yura stressed, gesturing with her hands to all the people gathered around them.

It was an eclectic mix. While some of the people who had gathered to see what all the commotion was about were among those who were downright offended by Kagome's willingness to bed a hanyou, regardless of her motives, some others were among those who sympathized with Inuyasha's plight, some of _those_ people actually still believing that Kikyou was probably right and Kagome _was_ using him for his money, which they didn't approve of, while the rest of them believed her claim that she loved him and were fully supportive of their relationship. Yet more people thought Kagome was using him but were on _her_ side, not seeing anything wrong with it and agreeing with Kagome's assessment that Kikyou was just jealous because she'd had her chance and she blew it, allowing Kagome to take her place.

In that moment, Kagome wouldn't have cared if the entire crowd of onlookers were a mob that had gathered on Kikyou's behalf, she was not about to back down.

Smirking as she saw Kagome's eyes narrow, Kikyou taunted, "Be honest. You saw an opportunity and pounced. You're no better than me. Worse in fact, because your standards are lower."

Some people snickered at that, while others murmured things amongst themselves that Kagome's human hearing couldn't quite make out. She momentarily found herself actually wishing she had Inuyasha's hearing before quickly thinking better of it, not that she was glad she wasn't a hanyou. She honestly wouldn't mind being a hanyou like him, and in fact, it would certainly make a genuine relationship between them much easier, but in that moment she was just glad that she couldn't understand the racist bullshit she knew some of the people were spouting because it would've distracted her, and right in that moment, Kikyou deserved the full brunt of her ire.

"You want the _truth?_ " she snapped. "Fine, I'll tell you the truth."

That got everyone's attention, and as Kagome took a deep breath in an attempt to calm her nerves, you could've heard a pin drop in the sudden, deafening silence. Feeling an inner wave of tranquility wash over her as she thought about her feelings for the hanyou, Kagome knew what she had to do. There was no way anyone watching this display would possibly think she was _this_ good of an actress. She wasn't acting at all; instead, she was completely honest.

"The truth is...I've loved him, with all my heart, for over two years now."

The look in her eyes screamed of how honest that statement really was, and Kikyou looked genuinely surprised as a result. Several murmurs of shock and/or disgust reached Kagome's ears, but she didn't care, and she didn't back down.

"When we first befriended him, and you, I had no intention of developing inappropriate feelings for him. He was taken, you two were happy, or so I'd thought at the time, and I'm just not that kind of girl. You'd clearly known that, too, since you'd never had any qualms with the four of us hanging out without you on the many times you chose not to come along. You never seemed afraid that I might try to steal your man, and you were right, I never would have. When I'd first realized I was developing what at the time I'd hoped was only a crush, I had every intention of ignoring it, hoping it would go away. Then Sango and I started hearing the sorts of things you joked about with your other friends, and my heart broke for him when I realized you didn't really love him. It broke a little more every time I saw him with you, still as happy as could be. I cried to my mother, unsure of what to do, but even after Sango, Miroku and I tried to warn him about you he didn't want to listen. He still loved you, and even though I knew you didn't feel the same way and didn't deserve him, I convinced myself that his happiness was all that mattered. I told myself that if you were going to give him a happy life, even if it was only so you could live a life of luxury, so long as he was truly happy then that was all that mattered."

A few rogue tears rolled down her cheeks against her will that she angrily wiped away. People didn't usually discuss such things in such a public setting but she didn't care. She wasn't embarrassed, and didn't give a damn how many people were disgusted by her declaration. She needed to get it through Kikyou's narcissistic, bitchy head. Not everything was about _her_ and just because _she_ was only capable of loving a man's money, that didn't mean _all_ women thought that way.

"After you broke up with him, I didn't know _how_ to feel. On the one hand, I was glad you were out of his life, not because you were the competition, but because you were no good for him. He deserves someone who really loves him, whether that's me or not. And of _course_ the thought passed through my head, that he was actually available now, which meant I at least had a chance, but he was in _no_ condition to think about dating again right after the breakup, let alone find out about how _I_ felt. He didn't need that. As relieved as I was, in a way, that you were gone, he was so broken, so utterly miserable, that all I wanted was to be there for him as the friend I am. Sango, Miroku and I are _all_ his friends and we _all_ care about him. I knew he needed time to heal."

Not about to actually reveal _the plan_ to Kikyou and everyone else, it was the only fib Kagome told when she added, "Fortunately, he's made of tougher stuff than you thought. Yeah, he was heartbroken, at first, but we helped him to accept that just because you turned out to be a heartless bitch..." Some people in the crowd snickered at that. "...that doesn't mean he's all alone in the world. He still has his friends. I wasn't expecting him to end up developing stronger feelings for me. I tried to keep my own feelings for him hidden, but I wasn't about to lie and tell him I only saw him as a friend when he very bravely and shyly told _me_ that he liked _me_. So if you think it's quite the coincidence that he and I just all of a sudden started liking each other after your breakup, you're right, I did fake it. I faked only barely _falling_ for him at the same time he fell for me, when the truth is, I fell long ago. I just still hadn't felt that he needed to know that; I thought it would be awkward for him. But being his girlfriend is a dream come true and I don't give a _damn_ about his money. If his family disowned him tomorrow, cut him off, I would happily stay with him. I would gladly live with him in a small apartment, both of us working two jobs just to get by." That last part was _so_ true. "So do me a favor, Kikyou, and quit projecting your personality flaws onto me. I'm glad you turned out to be not only a gold digger but a shallow, superficial one, deciding you're only willing to be the personal prostitute of a good looking _human_ man. _I_ am _not_ a prostitute, but I will gladly share my life, and my bed, with the man I love."

Here, she paused again, and glanced around at their audience, meeting several sets of eyes. Some people nodded their support, while others sneered at her in contempt.

"I don't care who disapproves of Inuyasha and I being together," she said then, addressing the whole crowd, "but know that I am with him because I love him. If anyone hates me for loving a being who's different from myself, so be it, but don't you _dare_ accuse me of only being willing to 'lower myself' because he pays me to. Just because you can't comprehend the existence of true love doesn't mean the whole world is as shallow and greedy as you are."

With that said, she finally stormed away, the crowd parting for her as she went. Head held high, she noticed Sango and Miroku both looking at her with pride from their place at the back of the crowd, and she smiled for them when their eyes locked. Inside, her stomach was doing flip flops, but she refused to let it show.

"Kagome..." Sango started as she neared, everyone else going about their business at that point since the show was over. "That was..."

"Shocking, right?" the miko acknowledged. "I just...had to say it," she said, as if confessing, but with a wink only Sango and Miroku would see. Okay, so it was the coward's way out, but she'd panicked, so sue her.

Knowing they couldn't talk openly with so many other students still meandering around, some of them possibly trying to listen in without looking like they were, Miroku merely told Kagome that he was proud of her for coming forward with the truth while Sango nodded agreement and then all three of them rounded the building and headed towards the part of the parking lot Miroku and Inuyasha always used.

Sure enough, the hanyou was waiting by his car, and if the look on his face was anything to go by, he'd heard every word of Kagome's impromptu speech to Kikyou, too. Now what? Should she admit the truth, or go the route she'd already chosen on the fly with Sango and Miroku and try to bluff her way through it? He had to give her a ride home; there was no way she couldn't get into his car after a speech like _that_ , but she was not looking forward to being alone with him. There was no point in trying to get all four of them to go do something together like the arcade, though, because she'd still be going with Inuyasha in his car, either way, so then it didn't even matter. Besides, it was Friday, so Miroku had to work that night. She knew those two just planned on kicking back at Sango's place until Miroku had to leave for work, so she'd let Miroku and Sango go and worry about her own situation.

Meeting Inuyasha's eyes as they approached, his expression was unreadable, at first, but with so many other students who'd been a part of the gathered crowd also heading to their own cars in the same part of the parking lot, Kagome did what she had to do in that moment, for the greater good, and threw on her biggest, best fake smile as she enthusiastically waved at him.

As if seeing her throw on the act had reminded the hanyou that he, too, still needed to keep the act going, he immediately smiled as well, an expression that Kagome knew was just as fake and for show as her own.

"Hey, sorry to keep you waiting so long," she said once she got to his car, having already parted ways with Sango and Miroku during the walk over. As the _real_ happy couple among them headed to Miroku's car, Kagome swallowed her fear, prepared to face the music, alone.

"I'd wait for you for however long it took," he answered sweetly, staying all smiles as Kagome got into his car.

Honestly, Inuyasha had no idea how to feel, and he also had no idea how to act. Even his inner actor was short-circuiting. Should he outwardly pretend that he hadn't even heard their conversation? But surely most people had to figure that he had _probably_ heard it, since most people had a pretty good concept of how good youkai senses were. Especially inu-youkai. But how should he react to the news, if they were really a couple like the story went? This was certainly no revelation to be angry with Kagome about, so being all _"Why didn't you tell me!?"_ was out of the question. That wasn't how he felt in real life, either. Well, maybe that question, but not in an agitated tone of voice. Besides that, there was a little voice inside his head warning him not to jump to conclusions. What if it wasn't even true?

But in that moment he figured that 'Inuyasha the Boyfriend' wouldn't want to have any kind of awkward or heartfelt conversation between the two of them out in public, so just acting sweet and lovey-dovey right in that moment seemed like the most logical choice. This would be a conversation they would have once they were alone. Now, what kind of conversation they were _really_ about to have once they were alone was a whole other story.

It was no less awkward for Kagome as Inuyasha got into his car on the driver's side, but what could she do? She was dedicated to the cause, above all else, and in fact, if she knew he'd be okay with it she would have leaned over and kissed him just then as he sat down. Just a peck on the cheek. As it was, though, she wasn't sure how he was feeling, and the last thing she wanted to do was upset him further.

The drive was silent, at first, which only made the awkward tension between them build with each passing second. Finally, Inuyasha couldn't take listening to the frantic pounding of Kagome's heart anymore.

"That was quite the speech," he began, keeping his tone carefully neutral. He figured the first step should be confirming for her that he had, in fact, been listening, although he also figured from her nervous state that she'd obviously assumed that he had, anyway. A nervous state that immediately got worse at his words.

Suddenly feeling like a trapped and frightened bunny, irrationally envisioning Inuyasha about to get angry with her, as if she'd somehow manipulated the entire situation for her own gain since the get-go in some form of using him that was even worse than what Kikyou had done, Kagome panicked.

"It _was_ pretty good, wasn't it?" she said right away, trying to sound confident. A part of her tried to reason with herself that Inuyasha could undoubtedly sense her anxiety, but she pushed that pesky fact to the back of her mind. "Kikyou and her friends were just so convinced that it was unrealistic that we would both suddenly start falling for each other, and I felt like if I just kept on sticking to the original story but also kept denying I was using you for your money that they weren't going to believe me," she stated honestly, since that _had_ been the reason why she'd decided to say what she had. "Either they would remain convinced I was using you for your money, or they might really end up deciding we were faking it, and either scenario was not an option so I don't know, it just came to me, to say what I said. Seemed like the perfect 'confession' to reinforce _the plan_ instead of letting everyone start to doubt our sincerity."

Somewhat of an expert at 'lying with the truth' as Kagome called it, her words were technically honest, making it hard for the hanyou to determine whether or not she was trying to deceive him.

"So you just made that story up on the fly?" he asked, still keeping his tone neutral so she wouldn't be able to tell if he was hopeful or disappointed. He didn't want her to just tell him what she thought he _wanted_ to hear; he wanted the truth.

Too many things were racing through his head at the moment, and he wasn't even sure whether he _wanted_ Kagome's story to be true or not, but one thing he _did_ know was that he was not angry with her, regardless of whether she'd made it up or had actually been completely honest with Kikyou. And although he was confused, it was clear to him that the miko sitting to his left was a nervous wreck, though whether that was because her story _was_ true and she was afraid of his reaction to the revelation, or because her story was _not_ true and she was merely afraid that he'd _think_ it was, he would only be able to determine once and for all if he asked her point blank not to lie to him, which, in that moment, he was not prepared to do. If she really _did_ love him then interrogating the poor girl about it wouldn't be fair, and while he wasn't quite sure yet if what he felt for her was real love or just his loneliness fucking with him, he definitely cared for her, too much to want to put her through that. So if she was telling him now that she'd made it up, he would not call her a liar. Besides, if she really _had_ made it up, then insinuating he thought it was true would only put her in the awkward position of having to tell him straight out that she _didn't_ love him, and he'd most definitely rather play it safe than risk looking like an idiot because he'd fallen for the lie of their own deception.

"That was quick thinking," he complemented then, before she'd even answered him, essentially letting her off the hook in that moment.

Trying to sound laid back and amused, to his ears he still sounded marginally uncertain, but if Kagome could tell he still wasn't quite sure what to believe she didn't show it, as she latched onto the opportunity his words gave her.

"I know, right?" she said right away, clearly still nervous since she started rambling again. "I just thought, well, what would be believable, you know? And like I've said before, I don't care who disapproves of us being together, 'cause a lot of people don't approve of interracial relationships, not that I have to tell _you_ that, obviously, but so I just hadn't wanted to let anyone actually think that I actually _was_ just using you for your money, like Kikyou did. People thinking I'm willing to sleep with anyone if they pay me enough is totally different from them being disapproving of our supposed relationship, and so I just wanted to make sure that if there was gonna be negative talk about me, it was the positive kind of negative, if that makes any sense. In fact-"

"It makes perfect sense," he interrupted, wanting to put her out of her misery because he knew a nervous ramble when he heard one. "There's a sense of pride, in a way, to be seen as a rebel when it comes to love. I understand that, because my mother's the same way. She told me she never minded, too much, the people that called her names for loving my father, because she loves him and that's all that matters. But Dad once told me that what really did bother Mom, in the beginning, was the people who called her a whore, implying she was just with him for his money. She also wanted to make sure everyone knew it wasn't about the money, and that she'd love him anyway," he explained to Kagome, letting her know that he did, indeed, understand.

Whether she really did ' _love_ him' love him, or only loved him as a friend and had been going along with the ruse out of the kindness of her heart because he was her _best_ friend, either way, he could see her wanting to defend herself that her feelings for him, whatever they really were in real life, had nothing to do with his money either way.

Nothing more was said on the subject as he drove her home. Instead, they made almost painful small talk about Kagome going back home to her family's shrine tomorrow morning. They agreed that just like they'd been doing for the last few weekends, Kagome could just take herself there by train in the morning but he would come get her on Sunday, rather than letting her take the train back into the city after dark.

Figuring he'd better walk Kagome to the door when they got to her apartment, Inuyasha was outwardly the perfect boyfriend, smiling at her, telling her he would miss her tomorrow and wishing her goodnight. Fortunately, she did not invite him in, but they had a good excuse if anyone saw and asked one of them about it later. She needed an early night since she had to get up so early to walk to the train station in the morning.

In fact, if anyone thought it was odd why they wouldn't need to have a heart-to-heart inside her apartment that evening, it dawned on Inuyasha as he got back in his car and headed home that there was nothing in Kagome's little speech to Kikyou that directly implied that he had _still_ been in the dark about the true nature of her feelings. Supposedly, assuming everything was true, meaning the alternate reality of their entire ruse, then she had only admitted to not confessing to him her preexisting love for him when he'd first confessed to _her_ that he liked _her_ , telling him instead that she was starting to see him that way, too, had been realizing that she liked him, too, and so she agreed to give dating him a try. But that was three months ago, and they were supposedly sexually active, now. In fact, it made _much_ more sense that Kagome would be willing to admit all that she had to Kikyou if she _had,_ in fact,already told him at one point, maybe even right before the two of them took that final step in their relationship.

He would run that possible scenario by Kagome tomorrow morning via text message. They at least had the weekend to get their story straight, so that was good, but by Monday they really needed to make sure they were on the same page. The loving smile he'd given her as she approached his car would also work perfectly with the idea that she had already told him, privately, the secret truth of her having loved him for so long, and perhaps they'd both decided to just keep it to themselves, not even telling Sango and Miroku since, supposedly, Kagome had been pretending not to love him, and so their other friends hadn't even known of her feelings for him, either

The little _what if_ kept floating up to the forefront of his mind. What if it really _was_ true?But he would worry about that later, including whether or not it was even something to be worried about. For now, he just wanted to get their story straight for Monday so the whole thing wouldn't blow up in their faces. He'd give Kagome credit for one thing, it was a _fabulous_ story. True or made up, it was sure to put an end to most people believing she was only with him for his money.

That was the one thing he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt was completely, 100% true. She was _not_ only with him for his money, or in real life, only his _friend_ because he was rich. He knew that she, as well asSango and Miroku, were genuinely his friends and _nobody_ , Kikyou or anyone else, would ever be able to convince him otherwise. He was the luckiest hanyou alive, to have such loyal friends, and he damn well knew it, so he would gladly take the awkwardness of his own uncertain feelings coupled with his new found uncertainty regarding his best friend's feelings in return. They would get through this, one way or another, and remain the best of friends afterwards, no matter what. If Kagome only saw him as a friend then he would do his best to keep his own growing feelings for her to himself and just pretend to only see her as a friend, as well.

The irony that that could very well be what _she'd_ been doing for the last two and a half years was not lost on him, but thinking on it any more that evening was going to give him a headache, so as Inuyasha walked into his own apartment and locked the door behind himself before slipping out of his shoes, he vowed to stop thinking about it. He had two foam cups of beef flavored noodles calling his name, and the TV had become a satisfactory distraction from his thoughts whenever he was alone.

Back in Kagome's apartment, the miko had broken down and started crying as soon as she was alone. Everything was such a mess, now, but she didn't regret what she'd done. She would live with the consequences, whatever they were, but at least for the purposes of their image, of Inuyasha's image, it was well and truly believed by all the people who'd been standing around watching her argument with Kikyou that he was _loved_. Word was sure to spread like wildfire and by Monday there would probably be more people who knew about the 'incident' outside the school than those who didn't. She wasn't sure if Inuyasha really bought her claim to have only made it up on the fly or not, and she was pretty sure that Sango and Miroku were suspicious, but she was grateful that Inuyasha had at least let it go during the drive, not pressing her further. Whether he _really_ believed her or not, he seemed at least willing to act like he did. What it really meant for their friendship in the long run, though, if he now thought she was a liar and he'd lied to her in turn, pretending to believe her lie, she wasn't sure. She was hopeful, though, that they could recover from any damage this had caused. They were best friends, and best friends could survive little bumps in the road of life. Hopefully in time he would forgive her for the deception. She was just worried that it would be too weird for him to continue being her friend if knowing how she really felt about him would make him uncomfortable. It wasn't as if she could tell him that she'd gotten over those old feelings and didn't feel that way anymore. That would just be another lie, and moving forward, she would try her absolute best to never lie to him ever again.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

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The next day, Inuyasha was definitely grateful for the reprieve that Saturday offered. Not only did he not have to face the entire student body of Tama University just yet, but he didn't even have to face Kagome, since she was working at her family shrine. He would pick her up tomorrow evening like he always did those days, but that at least gave him today to get his shit together. Knowing he had to be all smiles when he got her tomorrow, keeping up their usual routine for the sake of her family, he would make sure to get his thoughts in order so that he wouldn't unintentionally seem distracted.

He needed to speak with Sango and Miroku.

Knowing that Sango was working at her family dojo that morning and that after work she'd be going to Miroku's apartment for the two of them to have lunch together before it was Miroku's turn to leave for work, Inuyasha thought about texting Miroku to let him know he would be coming over but then thought better of it. The monk might try to just talk to him in text, or even call him on the phone, but he wanted to speak with him, with the both of them, in person, so that he'd be able to rely on his demonic senses to help him determine whether or not they were being honest with him. If they were forewarned of his arrival it was also theoretically possible they'd have time to mentally prepare themselves, especially the houshi since he did that meditation crap that Inuyasha had never been able to get into. He wouldn't put it past Miroku to be able to lie smoothly without giving off a single indication that he was being dishonest. He'd rather catch them off guard and then their reactions would be much more genuine.

Not that he really thought they were trying to _deceive_ him, per se, but if Kagome had possibly made them swear never to tell him... And he felt bad, thinking about putting them in the awkward position of possibly needing to break such a vow, but even if they didn't, wouldn't, their reactions alone would be enough to tell him all he needed to know.

In the meantime, the impersonal nature of text messaging was perfect for contacting Kagome about his idea regarding _the plan_. Texting her his suggestion, that the best course of action for them would be to pretend that she had already confessed to him at one point during their intimacy the truth regarding how long she'd loved him, thus explaining why she'd felt okay revealing it to Kikyou and everyone else because it wasn't something that had still been a secret to _him_ , even though Sango and Miroku hadn't known, Kagome wrote back that that was a fabulous idea. She said she hadn't thought about it at the time, and had just assumed that supposedly he hadn't known, she'd never told him, but she also agreed that there was nothing in what she'd said that had specifically implied he still hadn't known by that point in their relationship, acknowledging that his idea made more sense.

Once they got that squared away Inuyasha let her go, so she could get back to working in the shrine's gift shop, with just a quick _"See you tomorrow"_ as his send off. With that done, he distracted himself with some morning TV while keeping an eye on the time.

ooo

Miroku and Sango were just getting ready to have lunch in Miroku's apartment when there was an unexpected knock on the door.

"Hey," Miroku greeted when he saw who it was. "We weren't expecting you, but come on in," he said, stepping aside to bid the hanyou entry.

Sango came over as Inuyasha slipped out of his shoes.

"Would you like some ramen?" she offered. While their cups were already done she could always boil more water.

"I'll do it," he said, the scent of shrimp cup noodle making his mouth water. While he hadn't previously had food on the mind, he would never say no to ramen. "You guys eat yours before it gets cold."

"So what brings you by?" Miroku asked conversationally as he slurped his noodles while leaning against the kitchen counter, Inuyasha putting a pot of water on to boil.

While he was pretty sure it had something to do with the massive elephant in the room, he could be wrong, so would wait to see what the hanyou had to say.

"I just needed to talk to you two for a minute," Inuyasha admitted then, "and I figured it would be better to have this conversation in person."

"Let me guess," Sango started, and Inuyasha nodded.

"Yesterday," he answered.

"Kagome's big speech to Kikyou," Miroku finished.

"I was hopin', if you guys knew something that maybe you'd promised not to tell me, that you might be willing to break that promise," Inuyasha said then, as he poured the hot water into his cup of noodles and moved with the others to go have a seat in the living room.

"I understand," Sango said, "and if I knew the truth, I would tell you. But the truth is, honestly, while I had suspected that Kagome might've had stronger feelings for you I never asked her, and she never said."

"But we did think that you two would make a better couple, if Kikyou were out of the picture."

"Miroku!"

"What?" said defensively. "He wanted us to be honest."

"No, that's true," Inuyasha said then, coming to the houshi's defense as well, before asking him, "You really thought that?"

"We did," Sango admitted then. "We only talked about it once or twice, when I was speculating whether or not Kagome might have had deeper feelings for you. We never openly discussed whether or not we thought she did, but we did agree, just in passing, that you two would've been perfect for each other."

"It was after we knew that Kikyou didn't really love you," Miroku wished to clarify.

Inuyasha just shook his head.

"I wish I would've listened to you guys when you tried to warn me about her."

"You loved her," Miroku brushed off. "I completely understand."

Slurping up the last of her noodles, Sango stared down at the empty cup in her hands for a moment, as if debating what to say next, before admitting, "Even though I never asked Kagome if she had stronger feelings for you back then, I did ask her about it last night. I called her, and she told me the same thing I'm sure she told you yesterday, what Miroku and I had gathered from the way she'd _winked_ at us when she approached. She said it was just an on the fly story she made up to make her supposed feelings for you more believable since she didn't want everyone thinking she was just with you for your money. It was the best way to get back at Kikyou, she said, since the whole point had been for her to see you in a happy relationship after dumping you, to know that she hadn't succeeded in bringing you down."

Inuyasha nodded his understanding to that.

"If Kikyou's convinced that Kagome just took advantage of the opportunity to replace her and I'm still just being used by someone, stupidly falling for it a second time, then that doesn't give me the satisfaction of proving to Kikyou that I'm not unlovable, it actually reinforces her belief."

"Yeah," Sango agreed.

As they all thought about it, it really did make sense, then, why Kagome might have come up with such a story, assuming it wasn't really true. Her explanation, of just wanting to convince Kikyou that her supposed love was real, to debunk the other miko's theory that she, too, was just using Inuyasha for his money, was completely plausible.

"The one person who might know the truth is Kagome's mother," Miroku suggested then.

"Yeah..." Sango remembered aloud at Miroku's words. "She even said as part of everything she said to Kikyou that she'd cried to her mother about it."

"I don't know if I feel brave enough to ask Kagome's mother about it, though," Inuyasha confessed. "What if it's _not_ true? I still have to come around, still pretending to be Kagome's boyfriend at any rate, and I'd hate for her to feel _sorry_ for me, and she'd probably tell Kagome, too..." He shook his head. "No, I don't want to go down that road."

"It's your decision," Miroku stated.

"I have a question," Sango said then, her serious tone earning both boys' attention. "Do _you_ love _her?_ "

Inuyasha's eyes widened, more surprised that she'd actually asked him than by the question itself since it was one he'd already been asking himself lately. "I..."

 _Do I love her?_ he questioned himself for the nth time, mentally going over the criteria.

He knew he enjoyed her company, a lot, and he missed her terribly whenever she was gone. He tried hard not to let his own sour mood put a frown on her face, and _despite_ his sour mood she always managed to make _him_ smile and laugh. That was love, wasn't it? But he'd never really thought about Kagome in an _intimate_ way before. Well, except for all the times his stupid hormones tried to get the better of him. She _was_ a beautiful female, after all. It's not like he didn't have eyes.

Unbidden, his imagination suddenly provided himself with a fantasized vision of the two of them exploring each other's bodies, substituting Kagome in Kikyou's place for the few intimate memories he had of the other miko, and his face flamed bright red.

"It's a fair question," Miroku chimed in when it became obvious the embarrassed hanyou wasn't going to answer. "We both know you care about her deeply, as a friend, that she is the most important one to you among the three of us in fact, but do you _love_ her?"

"I...I'm really not sure..." he admitted finally, feeling as foolish as he knew it sounded. "I'm just so... _comfortable_ around her, you know? But...but when I think about how I fell in love with Kikyou, so hard and fast, I just don't know..."

Clearing his throat, he tried his best to swallow down his discomfort when it came to talking about his feelings. This was important, damn it.

"In the very beginning," he explained then, "I was amazed Kikyou was even willing to speak to me, let alone be my friend. I got what I guess was a crush on her right away, but I was afraid to let her know. I'd thought, well, she only wanted to be my friend. I needed to be grateful for what I had and not push my luck, you know?" Sango and Miroku both nodded their understanding to that. "But then when she asked me out on a date all of a sudden, I jumped at the chance. I was so happy. But I never felt that way about Kagome. I mean, how could I? I was with Kikyou. So when I got to know you guys, all three of you, she was just another friend, the same as you two. But then...you're right, Miroku. She became my _best_ friend. I mean, it's great having you to talk to if I need to talk to a guy about certain things..." Miroku nodded to that. "...but, but to just _hang out_ and have _fun_ , I have so much fun with Kagome. And she ain't bad to look at, neither. Of course the horny male in me finds her attractive," he admitted sheepishly. "It's not like I think of her as a sister or something, someone off limits. She was off limits because _I_ wasn't available, but so that's certainly not true anymore..."

Trailing off, his eyes widened as he suddenly realized he was legitimately considering it. Not an off-handed thought of the two of them possibly getting together at some point in the future, once his heart was ready to think about romance again. His heart was actively _thinking_ about it. He was really, honestly, legitimately over Kikyou, and the thought of Kagome being his girlfriend, his _real_ girlfriend, right now, was suddenly a very appealing one.

"I think...I think I _do_ love her," he acknowledged then, both sounding and looking much more surprised than the houshi and taijiya, who'd both suspected all along that he'd wind up developing stronger feelings for Kagome. They'd just wanted to hear him admit it, have him realize it for himself.

"I still don't want to talk to her mother, though," he said then. "No matter how I tried to phrase it to her, she'd undoubtedly tell Kagome, so if Kagome's going to find out one way or the other I may as well just man up and talk to her about it, myself. Then that way, at least if it turns out she really doesn't see me that way, at least her mother won't look at me with pity in her eyes."

"Well I, for one, will not pity you," Sango assured him then. She was convinced Kagome loved that hanyou with all her heart, so she wasn't worried about it turning out she didn't.

"Nor I," Miroku added, feeling the same way. Even if Kagome had somehow managed to convince herself to just not let herself feel her feelings for him, believing with all her heart that he would never, could never return them, upon discovering that Inuyasha had, in fact, fallen for her, Kagome should be ecstatic. "That you are planning on telling Kagome how you feel, I commend you, and Sango and I shall not betray your confidence."

Sango immediately nodded her agreement to her boyfriend's statement.

"Thanks guys," Inuyasha said, meaning it with all his heart. "Yeah, please don't say anything to Kagome about our conversation, and don't try to covertly get the truth out of her, either. She already claimed she made it up, so that's clearly the story she's sticking with, whether it's true or not. Just let her stick to her story. I'll work on trying to figure out whether it's true or not, and when I feel like the moment's right, I'll talk to her, but until then, let's just keep playing the game since that's clearly what she wants. Gotta keep up appearances at school anyway, right?"

Sango and Miroku both agreed to that, as well, promising they would abide by his wishes and not say anything to Kagome about it. As far as the miko would know, they had all believed her story, the claim that what she'd told _Kikyou_ had been a story. Inuyasha also filled them in on the addition to that story that he'd come up with the day before, that as far as _the plan_ was concerned, the story was that _he_ had actually already known the truth of Kagome loving him, because at one point she'd confessed it to him, which explained why she'd been willing to admit it to Kikyou in the first place without worrying about what he would think should he overhear her, and which also explained why the two of them had been all smiles afterwards. Miroku and Sango also agreed that that was a good idea, including the part about the two of them _not_ having known, because, at the time, prior to when Kagome had decided to spill the beans in order to defend her relationship with Inuyasha, it had been a secret kept between just the two of them.

"That was good thinking," Miroku complemented. Surely at least _some_ people would wonder what sort of consequences had arisen between hanyou and miko as a result of her admittance, so this way, there would be none.

As far as the real life consequences Inuyasha now had to face, not within the fake alternate reality of _their plan,_ it wouldn't be as hard to act natural at school, he told them, compared to how it'd been for him in the very beginning, when he'd secretly been totally heartbroken over Kikyou and had had to fake his happiness every day. Feeling somewhat optimistic, himself, that Kagome cared for him as he thought she did – it would certainly explain why she'd _really_ been willing to go along with the ruse, uncaring about it harming her own reputation – he wasn't really that depressed over the minuscule worry that it might not really be true. He was nowhere near as emotionally disturbed over this unexpected confusion as he had been when Kikyou had ripped his heart from his chest and stomped on it with her high heeled shoes on her way out of his life. So if he could get up in the morning and smile when he'd felt like just staying in bed and crying, this would be easy. He would stay optimistic and not let the tiny little doubt in the back of his mind make him chicken out. When the time was right, he _would_ talk to Kagome about it.

That right time was not the following day, however, when Inuyasha went to the Higurashi Shrine to pick Kagome up after her shift. Keeping his act firmly in place as he greeted her family, he didn't even decline when Mrs. Higurashi asked him if he'd like to stay for dinner, although he didn't have to because Kagome beat him to it.

"Thanks, Mom, but we already have dinner plans for tonight," she said, which was news to him but obviously she just didn't want to stay for dinner so he played it off like a pro.

"We'll stay another time," he told Kagome's mother with a warn, appreciative smile.

His fake smiles always turned much more real around Mrs. Higurashi, since she was such a wonderful woman, being willing to go along with their ruse like she was, although if she actually did know something about Kagome's true feelings on the matter then that might help explain her reasoning in that department. But even beyond that, for even just letting Kagome be his friend in the first place, he was so grateful to the elder Higurashi woman. She was such a caring, understanding soul.

"Well not next weekend you won't," she said then, a playful, loving smile on her face. "I already told Kagome that she needn't come out next weekend, what with it being Christmas and all. While the mother in me would love to have you two over for Christmas dinner I'm sure much you'd rather spend the holiday alone, so that's what you're going to do and I won't hear any excuses."

While on the inside he was groaning, not even _wanting_ to think about Christmas at the moment, he kept his smile firmly in place, even if it was a tad more forced than it'd been a moment ago. "Yes ma'am," he answered playfully, making Mrs. Higurashi giggle softly behind her hand. Kagome actually _did_ groan, but in a way that was acceptable for a nineteen-year-old daughter to do when her mother was being embarrassing. She also kept the routine up since her grandfather and brother were also in the same room.

"Bye sis!" Souta called out as they headed for the door. "Merry Christmas! Since I won't see you."

"Bye squirt," she replied lovingly, her smile softening as she met her younger brother's eyes. "Merry Christmas."

With that, Kagome let Inuyasha usher her out of the house and into his car.

As soon as they were driving off, she spoke up before he could.

"If you haven't already made reservations anywhere then don't," she told him, her tone of voice gentle enough. "I don't really feel like going out to some fancy restaurant for Christmas dinner."

"I know the fancy restaurants aren't _really_ your thing," he acknowledged. "If you just wanna have the day off and not do anything, that's fine by me."

"Thanks."

Since there was so much romance associated with Christmas Eve, Inuyasha would just as soon spend it alone in his own apartment, as well. Before Friday, he might've been willing to grab some fried chicken and just hang out with her in her apartment as just friends, maybe bring over some movie or another to watch. Hell, before Friday, he would've been looking forward to it. But now, just the thought of spending what was supposed to be a special night for lovers alone with Kagome was making his stomach feel like he was free falling. Here he'd thought he only had to deal with his _own_ confusing feelings, but now he had to worry about how _she_ really felt on top of it? It would be the most awkward evening _ever_ if they both just tried to pretend there wasn't a giant red and green elephant covered in white and silver Christmas tinsel in the middle of the room.

Where _that_ particular visual had come from, he wasn't sure, but the point was, he had to get his own heart in order before he could start worrying about _her_ feelings. He did intend to talk to her about it, like he'd told Miroku and Sango he would, and who knew, maybe he'd feel differently in a week and they'd wind up hanging out on Christmas Eve, after all, but right in that moment as he drove her back into the city he couldn't even come up with anything mundane to chat about, and so for the first time ever, he turned on the radio.

While Kagome wished Inuyasha would've just started up a normal conversation she was grateful, at least, when he clicked the radio on, since the growing silence had been deafening. She'd had no idea what to talk about, herself, and apparently, he felt the same way. Mentally, she sighed. She feared it was going to be hard, going forward, to act as naturally as she had before. Oh, she'd be able to keep the act going at school, no problem. She owed him that much, at the very least. But while she could fool fellow humans by throwing on a friendly smile and striking a casual pose, that wouldn't fool Inuyasha's inu-youkai senses, and she knew it. She didn't know how she was going to keep herself from being a nervous wreck in his presence.

Maybe if she'd actually believed she'd fooled him before, that he'd bought her excuse, then she would be able to relax a little bit now, but she was sure he still wondered. He hadn't outright called her a liar, and for that she was grateful, but the simple fact that he hadn't been able to come up with anything normal to talk about right then, either, and had turned on the radio in order to break the silence, was all the proof Kagome needed to know that his thoughts were probably just as much of a jumbled mess as her own. Except, in his case, he was dealing with the potential awkwardness of realizing his best friend had deeper feelings for him, while she was the one who had to deal with her friend potentially knowing that she loved him.

Not really something she wanted to think about.

In a really lame attempt at pretending everything was fine, she started singing along to the radio.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The following day was as awkward as Kagome had feared it would be. She and Inuyasha acted the same in front of everyone else, but it was their moments alone that she feared had been irreparably damaged. On the way to school that morning she tried valiantly to make lame small talk, and he went along with it, but her heart was beating so fast that she knew there was no way their conversation would drown out the sound of it to his hanyou ears. Nevertheless, when they arrived at Tama University they walked onto campus hand in hand before going their separate ways, big smiles on their faces, and when all four of them got together for lunch at Hungry Ninja Noodles an outside observer would've never been able to tell that there was a problem. During judo practice Inuyasha was just as attentive as ever, and when a few of the people from their circle that had never been against them came up to the hanyou and miko to reiterate their moral support regarding their relationship, Inuyasha and Kagome acted appropriately grateful.

When their training session was over Miroku asked Kagome and Inuyasha if they had any plans and if they'd like to have dinner with him and Sango, but when Inuyasha noticed the way Kagome's anxiety level immediately increased at the question, the miko clearly having thought she only needed to make it through school and then she'd be granted the reprieve of solitude, he bluffed his way through while they were still in public by saying that he and Kagome already had plans for the evening, the same way Kagome had lied to her mother the day before. The miko, being quick on the uptake, immediately corroborated Inuyasha's story while thanking Miroku for the offer, before covertly sending the hanyou a look that was a combination of embarrassed and grateful. She wished he hadn't noticed how skittish she was still feeling, but at the same time she truly appreciated that he'd given her an out.

Going their separate ways, then, the drive back to her apartment was filled with the sound of Inuyasha's car radio, which Kagome turned on that time, as soon as he'd started the engine. He didn't even try to talk to her until, as he walked her to her door, he wished her a friendly goodnight.

The rest of the week went by more or less the same way, each day a virtual copy of the day before it with only minor differences. Hanyou and miko hardly spoke to one another during their moments alone, but to Inuyasha, it was what Kagome wasn't saying that really spoke volumes. He'd already done his part by pretending to buy her excuse, but the fact that, while she outwardly played along, she hadn't actually been reassured because her scent still reeked of fear, told him that she hadn't bought _his_ story when he'd claimed to buy hers. But if her story to _Kikyou_ had been just that, a story, and she was only worried now that he hadn't believed that when she'd told him so, that was really no reason for her to act so nervous around him. Even though she wasn't _acting_ nervous around him, keeping that smile on her face, and either making small talk or happily singing along to the radio, it was the scent of anxiety coming off of her in waves that mattered to the hanyou, not her actual behavior. While she could control herself, outwardly, she could not truly control her emotions, and they were telling him that something major was still bothering her.

Even so, it never seemed to be the right moment to try and broach the subject with her. He couldn't fully blame her for her anxiety when he always chickened out, too. Every time he dropped her off at her apartment he could pause at her doorway, tell her _"We need to talk"_ and invite himself in, but he never did. It also didn't help that, since his conversation with Sango and Miroku last Saturday, he'd been having unsolicited fantasies about her. He'd even caught himself thinking about Kagome while jacking off in the shower more than once. While he'd _made_ himself stop thinking about Kikyou right after their breakup, he'd always thought about, well basically nothing, except the need for release. Why that was suddenly no longer sufficient for his traitorous subconscious mind he wasn't sure, except for the obvious reason, of course.

He was in love with Kagome, fully and truly.

Maybe one day he'd be brave enough to tell _her_ that.

When Friday finally got there Inuyasha had never been so grateful for a school week to be over. Miroku had to work, of course, so that was as good an excuse as any other for why the four of them didn't decide to go hang out together afterwards. Sango and Miroku knew that Kagome wouldn't be going to her family's shrine tomorrow, but nothing much else had really been said on the subject, so whether or not hanyou and miko were really going to do anything together for the holiday, they didn't know and they didn't ask. Sango _did_ volunteer the information, though, during lunch, that she and Miroku had gotten themselves a fancy hotel room for the evening, his uncle having been kind enough to give him the night off even though he usually worked on Saturdays, and her father, too, giving her Christmas morning off at the family dojo.

Miroku had recently braved asking her father for permission to marry her, and much to their relief – because while they were getting married either way neither of them had wanted to be forced to go against his wishes – her father had said yes. As far as Sango's family knew, Miroku was 'popping the question' tomorrow, on Christmas Eve.

Inuyasha and Kagome both gave their friends sincere congratulations during lunch, because the truth was they _were_ both extremely happy for the monk and slayer, despite their own current situation. As an inside joke while waiting for Kagome at the end of the day, Inuyasha jokingly promised Miroku and Sango that he wouldn't come crash their party. Miroku, in turn, told the hanyou that perhaps he, too, should _make use_ of the holiday. He got the message, but as his ears told him Kagome was approaching he didn't respond, and greeted her at his car with a huge smile that was just as forced as her own.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Waking up Christmas Eve morning, Inuyasha didn't even feel like getting out of bed, at first, until he realized that was depression talking and so he forced himself. His mother had called him the night before, interrupting his nightly ritual for the last week of berating himself for being too chicken shit to talk to Kagome about how he felt, and what she'd had to say hadn't helped matters any when it'd became apparent she'd called to ask if he was going to be coming home for dinner the following night.

While Inuyasha supposed he _could_ go have Christmas dinner with his parents, he didn't really feel like it. They had _no_ idea about his feelings for Kagome, had never even been made aware that the two of them were pretending to be a couple, and he just knew there was no way he'd be able to act as if nothing was wrong in order to enjoy a nice peaceful dinner with his parents. His disquietude would be just as obvious to his father as Kagome's was to him, and even his mother, who knew him so well, would be able to tell with just a look that something was troubling him.

At least he'd been able to keep the sound of his voice happy enough during their phone call, hopefully fooling her. If she'd suspected something was bothering him she at least hadn't asked. Knowing that Sesshoumaru wouldn't be coming over for dinner, either, his full youkai half-brother being happily mated and surely spending the night alone with his wife, Inuyasha had gotten out of the invite by telling his mom he was sure the two of them were looking forward to _finally_ having a Christmas Eve they could spend together, alone, just the two of them, now that he was grown and out of the house.

Izayoi had only expressed mild concern about her son being alone for the holiday, referencing his breakup with Kikyou last summer, but he'd assured her that that was ancient history and that he was fine. He wasn't still pining after Kikyou and he didn't mind spending the holiday alone.

At least that first part had been true.

Now, as he forced himself to go through his usual morning rituals, Inuyasha's loneliness really hit home. Tonight was going to _suck_. Still, it was what it was, and he knew it was his own damn fault because, hypothetically, had he braved having that 'talk' with Kagome he was supposed to have had by now, then maybe, just maybe, he _wouldn't_ be spending Christmas Eve alone. He had nobody to blame but himself, but in that moment, he actually found himself feeling more sorry for Kagome than he was for himself. She was going to be spending tonight all alone, too, and if what he suspected of her feelings was correct, then that was tremendously unfair. It was unfair of him to do that to her.

Maybe it wasn't too late to do something about that.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

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Waking up Christmas Eve morning, Kagome didn't even feel like getting out of bed, at first, until she realized that was depression talking and so she forced herself. On the one hand, she was glad she didn't have to go out to the shrine today, but on the other hand, if she could've just worked it like any other Saturday, business as usual, she would've appreciated the distraction. But it was just as well that she wasn't there, she supposed, because then that would've meant having Christmas dinner at home, and of course, _that_ would've meant inviting Inuyasha, because how could she have _possibly_ excused his absence without it instantly seeming as if the two of them must have had a huge fight? She hadn't even told her mother what'd happened when she was there last weekend, so she had no idea that Inuyasha was suspicious of her feelings now, and Kagome herselfstill had no idea what that really _meant_ as far as their friendship moving forward.

She got the distinct impression that he wanted to talk to her about it, too. How could he not, right? But so far she'd managed to dodge the proverbial bullet, even though she knew it was only postponing the inevitable. Something would have to be done, eventually, because they couldn't go on like this. _She_ couldn't go on like this. But she'd known from the start that her heart was going to suffer, she just hadn't realized to what degree, and she still did not truly regret saying what she had to Kikyou, because the one thing that had been a ray of sunshine for her throughout this last week was that she had, indeed, killed the rumor that she was only with Inuyasha for his money. People either applauded her position of standing up for their forbidden love, or ridiculed her and called her a traitor to mankind, some even going so far as to stupidly claim her and Inuyasha's relationship was perpetrating human genocide because they had no idea what the word 'genocide' really meant – and the human race was in _no_ danger of going instinct just because a minority of people chose to have hanyou children – but those assholes didn't bother Kagome in the slightest.

As she forced herself to go through her usual morning rituals, Kagome's loneliness really hit home. Tonight was going to _suck_. But did that mean she'd rather go have dinner with Inuyasha, pretending that everything was all right between them when it really wasn't? No. He would either play along and pretend everything was fine, a phony act he'd never had to do with _her_ before this last week and one that broke her heart a little more every time she saw it, or he'd want to _talk_ , not be phony and get it all out in the open, and while she knew she'd have to face the music _eventually_ she just didn't want to deal with it tonight. Not tonight. Not on what had always used to be her favorite holiday. Hopefully, if nothing bad happened to taint her memory of this special night, it could continue to be her favorite holiday for years to come. One lonely Christmas wasn't the end of the world.

Pulling herself out of her funk, Kagome made the decision to get dressed, go to the store, get herself some chicken for dinner tonight and maybe even a little Christmas cake if there were still any left, and then she'd put her pajamas back on and curl up with the TV, letting random shows distract her from her Christmas blues. She would get through this, and then maybe next weekend, for the new year, she'd make the resolution to start fresh, and honest, and tell Inuyasha the truth.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sighing as he stared blankly into his kitchen cabinets, not about to go wait in the ridiculously long lines at KFC for a stupid chicken dinner, Inuyasha decided that chicken flavored instant ramen would suffice and retrieved himself two cups, before putting one of them back. The truth was, he wasn't even hungry.

He'd called Kagome around noon. He'd actually braved calling her, and he'd kept his tone of voice sounding pleasant enough if he did say so himself. Asking in what he'd hoped was an innocent enough way if she wanted any company for the evening, telling her he remembered what she'd said last week about not feeling like going to out eat at a restaurant although that didn't mean he couldn't grab something at the market to make her a nice dinner at home, she had, albeit politely, declined his offer, telling him she wasn't in the mood for company and just wanted to spend the day alone.

If that didn't scream of a broken heart, he didn't know what did, but at the time, he'd been too cowardly to say anything over the phone. Not wanting to sound desperate for companionship, himself, if he'd pressed the issue, saying something like maybe instead of dinner they could just go for a walk and look at all the illuminations around the city, he'd instead just told her it was fine, told her that she could call him at any time if she changed her mind, and that if not, he'd see her when he came to pick her up for school on Monday morning. Wishing her a Merry Christmas, then, that had been the end of the phone call.

"Fucking coward," he berated himself as he heated up some water for his noodles. "Lonely miserable bastard."

Talking to oneself was a bad sign, wasn't it?

He sighed.

As much as he hadn't really liked the idea of going home to have dinner with his parents it probably would've been worth the distraction, instead of being left all alone with his own thoughts as he was, but one of the reasons he'd politely turned down his mother's invitation, besides not having wanted to risk them realizing something was seriously bothering him, was the fact that if _Kagome_ had to spend the holiday all alone then he'd figured that _he_ should have to, also. He probably would have stomached going home had Kagome also gone home to see _her_ family, but he'd figured he had no right to try and distract himself from his woes by visiting with family when he knew she had no such luxury.

And Miroku had asked him last night via text if the two of them were going to put their awkwardness aside for the night and go enjoy a nice dinner somewhere, for the sake of Christmas. When he'd told him no, Miroku had actually asked him how come. How come? Was he serious?

Hell, maybe he was. Maybe he _should_ have just told Kagome he was coming over to make her dinner, rather than asking her if she'd like him to. Or better yet, he could've just told her to put on one of her fancy dresses because he was taking her ass out to a nice restaurant whether she liked it or not. But until they cleared the air between them and got the truth of their feelings, whatever they were, fully out in the open, he knew he would be putting on too much of an act in such a setting, and Kagome deserved better than that.

Eating his ramen without much enthusiasm, he was bored out of his mind and didn't feel like watching TV, so he just went to bed early after he was done eating, hoping the sooner he lost consciousness, the sooner this blasted holiday for love birds would be over and done with.

Unfortunately, an hour or so later, he was still wide awake, staring up at the ceiling, playing the events of the last week over and over again in his head. Kagome had definitely changed, no doubt about it. Even though she was acting just the same on the outside, she was _acting_ now, around _him_ , when she never had before. Looking back on it, the contrast of before and after her supposed 'confession' to Kikyou was night and day. How was it that he'd never noticed her sincerity beforehand? Her _lack_ of acting? Pretending to fall for him and then be in a relationship with him had seemed to come so naturally to her. _Too_ naturally, he realized now. Now, as he really thought about it, that one possible reason _why_ seemed the only realistic explanation.

He wished he'd been able to get close enough to Kagome at the time to scent whether or not she'd been telling the truth. That would've solved this dilemma right then and there. As it was, though, while he'd been able to hear her loud and clear from his place leaning against his car in the parking lot, along with Kikyou and most of the louder mutterings from their audience, he hadn't been close enough to hear her heartbeat, not that he would've been able to distinguish between it and everyone else's, anyway, and he'd been upwind, so scent had been out of the question. Without the use of his demonic senses he was in the same boat as everyone else when it came to deciding whether or not to believe her. Of course, she'd seemed sincere enough to the humans, because they _had_ chosen to believe her, and without his superior senses to tell him she'd been lying he tended to agree with them. All signs pointed to yes.

Still, her nervousness immediately afterwards, which on the one hand had seemed like a major sign, really could have been interpreted two ways, which was why he'd erred on the side of caution. Since she'd obviously _wanted_ him to think that it had just been a story she'd made up, he'd chosen to let it go at the time, pretending that he believed her, because whether or not it _was_ really true he'd figured had been beside the point. It waswhat she'd _wanted_ him to believe, and for that reason alone, he hadn't been prepared to confront her about it. At least not right then and there.

Now, though, Inuyasha pretty much felt like the ideal time for speaking with Kagome about it would've been today, if he hadn't chickened out like the fucking chicken-hanyou that he was. Glancing nonchalantly at the clock and suddenly realizing how early it actually still was, he abruptly realized the night wasn't over yet, and feeling a sudden jolt of determination, he launched himself from his bed, threw on some clothes, and was out the door before he could chicken out again.

ooo

Kagome was brushing her teeth before bed when there was a hesitant knock on the door. Pausing a moment to listen, unsure if what she'd heard was actually a knock or just some knocking sound coming from next door, it wasn't until she turned the water on to spit and rinse that a louder knock that definitely came from her front door got her attention.

With her heart beating a little bit faster, unable to think of anyone other than one person who would be knocking on her door at a time like this, although why _he_ was was a mystery in its own right, Kagome briefly glanced at herself in the bathroom mirror before deciding her red flannel pajamas with white snowflakes and white fuzzy slippers were acceptable enough attire for answering the door on Christmas Eve when she hadn't been expecting, or wanting, company.

At least she wasn't wearing her pastel pink ones with light silver-blue puppies and paw prints.

ooo

Fidgeting nervously as he stood outside Kagome's apartment door for what felt like an hour but couldn't have been longer than two minutes, Inuyasha was trying to psych himself up, reminding himself over and over again of the resolve he'd felt when he'd made the decision to come over here. A confidence that hadn't left him all through the drive but had apparently decided to wait in the car as he suddenly found himself feeling terrified. But what was the worst thing that could happen, really? Aside from getting his heart torn to pieces for the second time.

No problem.

Finally reasoning with himself that he simply couldn't go on not knowing, plus if he was right then not only would his heart _not_ be broken, he would actually be mending the heart of his best friend, as well, the woman he loved, Inuyasha grew a set and knocked on the door.

Waiting a moment but hearing no footsteps, Inuyasha cursed himself under his breath when he heard her bathroom sink turn on. He was obviously still hesitating to a degree if she hadn't heard him. Before he could start chickening out again, he knocked a second time, much harder. It was too late, then, and as he heard softened footsteps approaching the door, he mentally braced for impact.

Seeing her standing there in red pajamas with white snowflakes, fuzzy white slippers on her feet, to him, she was as beautiful as ever. Belatedly noticing the frantic pounding of her heart, her eyes wide in apprehension, her nervous state actually put _his_ mind somewhat at ease. As far as he was concerned, there was only one possible reason for that type of a reaction to his sudden appearance, all things considered. Especially on a night like tonight.

ooo

Confirming her suspicions as soon as she opened the door to see Inuyasha standing there, dressed in a casual pair of blue jeans and her favorite red sweater, Kagome's mind started running a mile a minute to try and decipher just what this impromptu visit could possibly mean. She'd already told him she wanted to be alone, so what could have possibly made him choose to go against her wishes and show up, anyway? And so close to bedtime?

Still, she knew she couldn't just stand there gaping at him like an idiot, and she wasn't _about_ to actually, rudely send him away, especially when all she really wanted to do was throw herself into his arms and beg forgiveness. With worrying that he could most likely sense her discomfiture only succeeding in making her even _more_ nervous, a nasty kind of self-fulfilling prophecy that had her mentally cursing her inability to control her emotions as well as she'd like, Kagome nevertheless threw on a welcoming smile in answer to his own happy grin as she stepped aside and invited him in, apologizing lamely for her current state of dress.

"You look fine," he assured her, still smiling as he slipped off his shoes. "I'm the one who should apologize for coming by so late, and after you told me earlier you wanted to be alone."

"Oh no, it's fine, really," she insisted, as they both made their way over into her living room and each took a seat sideways on the couch, facing each other. "But, what brings you by? Is everything all right?" she asked.

At least nothingdire had happened, she was sure, otherwise he wouldn't be smiling at her like that, although his grin was making her apprehensive in a different way. She had a sneaking suspicion she knew _exactly_ why he was there.

No sooner than she thought that, his smile fell, a very serious look taking over his features. Now she was _really_ worried.

Knowing his behavior was freaking her out, and feeling a little guilty because of it, Inuyasha figured the best thing to do, for both their sakes, was to just plow full speed ahead and get it over with, like ripping off a band-aid.

"Kagome," he began, trying to keep his tone as gentle as possible. "I need you to tell me the truth, no matter what. Promise me."

Her heart was beating so fast now it felt like it was trying to escape the situation by breaking straight out of her chest and making a run for it, but she nodded nonetheless, quietly whispering, "I promise."

He nodded, accepting her word. Inuyasha knew that Kagome knew that he'd be able to tell, now, if she lied to him, because breaking her promise would compound all the usual signs of deception. Besides that, he personally believed she had too much honor to break her vow in the first place.

"I need to know," he told her then. "I need to know if everything you said to Kikyou was _really_ just a good story you made up on the fly, or if you lied to her with the truth, as you call it, the only part you kept a secret from her being our original plan to pretend. I need to know if you really do love me, if you _have_ loved me, for the last two years. Please," he pleaded, no longer caring that he sounded desperate, "just tell me the truth."

Unable to stop her eyes from tearing up, certain her friendship with Inuyasha was about to be ruined forever, she nonetheless knew she had to tell him the truth. She had promised, after all. That he would be able to tell that she was lying didn't even factor into it; she would never, could never break a direct promise to him like that.

"It's true," she told him then, her voice quiet, sad and defeated. "I...I've loved you, for so long." And then, the floodgates opened. "I kn-know you d-don't f-feel the same, so it's f-fine, I just-"

That was as far as she got before Inuyasha silenced her with a kiss.

Her brain nearly shut down. It took several seconds to realize what was happening. The feel of Inuyasha's lips as he moved them against her own was so foreign, but in a wonderful way. He wasn't just pressing his lips to hers, unmoving, but instead, his slightly parted mouth was massaging her lips in a sensual pattern. It took a second to really hit her. Inuyasha was _kissing_ her! And not just a chaste peck; a _real_ kiss. She immediately started kissing him back, trying to mimic his movements. It took Kagome another full moment to realize she didn't really know what she was doing, because this was her _first_ kiss.

But if she was doing something wrong Inuyasha didn't show it, as he reached up with his right hand to gently cup her left cheek while his left hand snaked its way behind her back, pulling her close. Kagome responded to his apparent enthusiasm by wrapping her right arm up and around his neck while her left hand clenched a fistful of fabric on his right shoulder.

Inuyasha rumbled approvingly in the back of his throat as she responded to him the way he'd hoped she would. His behavior didn't show it, but he was a nervous wreck, or at least he had been when he'd initially made the quick decision to kiss her.

Hearing her say the words, say that she loved him, had immediately caused his heart to swell. Even though he'd already come to the conclusion that he loved her, he hadn't known for a _fact,_ beyond a shadow of a doubt, how she truly felt about him in return until just that moment, and realizing there was nothing standing in his way, in _their_ way, had made his love for her double. Triple. Then her sadness had registered and he'd acted without thinking, following his instincts, wanting only to devour her misery and replace it with joy. His brain had freaked out once it'd caught on to what he was doing, but that didn't mean he'd been about to stop.

Not after she'd started to respond, kissing him back.

Then that happy canine rumble of satisfaction had slipped out, without his permission, but before he could get embarrassed by the slip, because Kikyou had always hated it whenever he made those kinds of sounds and so he'd always tried to keep a lid on his youkai side to make sure it wouldn't bother her, the tantalizing aroma of Kagome's arousal drifted up to his nose and had him rumbling again at the realization that she found his canine sounds arousing.

Unfortunately, all good things had to come to an end. Especially since that scent of hers was going to have him wanting to do things he was sure she wasn't ready for yet. He knew well, from battling his own hormones, that sometimes the body had its own ideas and didn't care what the mind or heart had to say. When Inuyasha finally pulled back and away, he made sure to keep his grin soft and sincere when Kagome blinked her eyes back open, lest he spook her with his body's reaction to her own.

Seeing him smiling at her so tenderly, so full of love, was a dream come true for the miko, but even so, she had been through so much, and put herself through so much emotionally, that she was having a little trouble just letting go and letting herself just _feel_. His kiss had been amazing, and a part of her just wanted to get lost in sensation, but her heart was insisting that they get something cleared up first.

"I..."

Even though she couldn't finish the thought out loud, her eyes and scent bespoke of her confusion. A part of her wanted to tell Inuyasha that she didn't understand, while another part of her didn't want to risk shattering the moment.

 _Just shut up and kiss him again,_ that half of her screamed at herself.

Recognizing the uncertainty in her eyes, the not daring to hope, it was a feeling the hanyou could relate to all too well. Especially over this past week.

"I love you," he told her then, unafraid to make the confession now that he knew she felt the same way. She had been the one forced into admitting her feelings against her will, still believing them to be one sided, and he wasn't about to let her go on for even one _second_ longer with that lingering fear clouding her scent.

"You..." she murmured, as if unable to wrap her head around his words.

Actions spoke so much louder, anyway.

"Love you," he finished for her, before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into another kiss.

While still surprised, Kagome got over her initial shock much faster that time, immediately responding by kissing him back with all the pent up emotions she'd been repressing for over two years now. Grabbing onto him so tightly it was like she was afraid he'd disappear if she let go, Inuyasha reassured her he wasn't going anywhere by tightening his hold on her in return.

When they finally broke apart for some much needed oxygen it was with great reluctance, and although Kagome unwound her arms from around his neck she latched onto his left hand with her right in a death grip, as if she were dangling over a cliff, hanging onto him for dear life. She knew he would never let her fall.

"You're not just messing with me, are you?" she asked with a watery laugh, not really believing for one minute that he was capable of being so cruel.

Knowing she was only joking, he chuckled a little, himself.

"I might be blind and dumb as a post," he started, in reference to his inability to see what was right in front of him as well as his initial confusion regarding his _own_ feelings, "but one thing I'm not is a heartless bastard."

"No way," she agreed. "You have a heart of gold." Reaching up with her left hand to cup his right cheek, she added softly, "It matches your eyes."

Leaning into her touch, he closed the eyes she loved so much as his inner inu wagged its metaphoric tail. If he were a neko-hanyou he'd be purring.

"So, I guess..." she spoke back up after a moment of peaceful silence, lowering her left hand although her right was still holding his left, their joined hands resting on his left thigh as they each sat sideways on the couch in order to face each other, her left leg and his right both tucked underneath themselves while her right leg and his left both dangled over the edge. "I guess this will makes things much less complicated when we go back to Tama U after winter break," she finished, "since our big lie is now true."

He gave her hand a little squeeze, his eyes amused.

"I suppose that's true," he acknowledged, "but truth be told, school is the last thing I want to think about right now."

"I suppose you've got a point," she conceded with a wry grin. "I think my brain is just grasping for something simpler it can make sense of."

"I'm sorry if I confused you," he apologized lightly, "but if it's any consolation, I confused the hell out of myself, first."

Reaching up with his right hand, he brushed a wayward strand of hair behind her left ear.

"Finally, for the first time in what seems like forever, everything makes sense now," he added.

He opened up to her then, telling her everything from when he'd first started to feel more strongly towards her, to when he'd _realized_ that he had started to feel more strongly towards her. His initial hesitation, when he had been unable to determine if his feelings were real or merely a manifestation of his loneliness, and his absolute belief that nothing would come of it because _she_ only saw _him_ as a friend. Then his confusion and uncertainty after overhearing her infamous confession to Kikyou last week, and how he was unsure, at first, if he'd even _wanted_ it to be true or not, although he _had_ been determined to find out what _was_ true, regardless of his feelings on the matter. Then finally, this past week at school, as he'd observed her own change in behavior, at least under the surface. Her barely concealed anxiety, coupled with smiles that were far more forced than they'd previously been, which had helped him to solidify his own resolve. Feeling fairly optimistic but determined to get to the truth no matter _what_ , he apologized again for upsetting her with the way he'd just asked her to tell him the truth without confessing his own feelings to her, first, but the truth was, he was a coward.

"If you'd told me honestly that you really _didn't_ love me, that your uneasiness around me over the last week was just because you felt awkward thinking that I _thought_ you did, even though you'd already told me it was just a story you'd made up, then I would've probably tried to play it off, pretend I was relieved at the news and tell you you were just a very good friend to me, as well," he admitted.

"I'm glad it didn't work out that way, then," Kagome acknowledged. "Even if I didn't really love you as more than just a friend, I wouldn't have wanted you to have to go through that, pretending you didn't love me."

"I'm sorry _you_ had to go through it," he apologized. "And then to _pretend_ that you were just a friend _pretending_ to love me?" He shook his head. "Kami, I never would've let you do that to yourself if I'd known."

"I wanted so badly to just tell you I loved you back when Kikyou first broke up with you, and you were convinced you were unlovable, but it wouldn't have been appropriate," Kagome admitted.

"I wouldn't have reacted to the news the same way. I can tell you that," he replied. "I guess, just like Miroku says, all things happen for a reason."

"At least I got to pretend to be your girlfriend," she said, in a tone of voice that was meant to let him know it hadn't been all bad. "Until I screwed up last week, I was really having a good time."

"Me too," he acknowledged. "But I'm glad you _screwed up,_ " he teased with a wink, "otherwise I wouldn't have known _my_ new found feelings were returned."

"Yeah."

"And you don't have to _pretend_ to be my girlfriend anymore," he added. "As far as I'm concerned, and I can't imagine you'd object, you _are_ my girlfriend now."

"No objections here," she agreed with a smile. "You were right, by the way," she added playfully.

"Oh? About what?"

"That you know how to kiss without hurting me with your fangs."

He laughed a little at that, before leaning forward just enough to kiss her lips gently, a simple, tender kiss this time that only lasted a second. He was half tempted to make a joke about his claws, that, eventually when the time came, when they got that far in their intimacy for _real_ , he would know how to touch her without hurting her, too, but then thinking better of it, he didn't want to risk embarrassing her and ruining the moment if she found the comment too forward.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked at the contemplative look on his face.

"Something lecherous, but I didn't want to embarrass you," he admitted with another chuckle, earning a giggle from her in return.

"At least you're honest," she said.

"Always the best policy," he acknowledged with a nod and wink.

She grinned, before glancing up at the fuzzy appendages she loved so much, her expression becoming somewhat hesitant. "May...may I touch your ears?"

He was caught off guard by the question, but then immediately remembered that one unthinking tweak she'd given his ear a few weeks back and how, at the time, he'd actually thought that letting her touch his ears would be a cute Christmas present for her. He reached up with his right hand to rub his own right ear at the memory. So much had happened in the last week that he'd honestly forgotten all about his decision to let her molest them, but now that she'd actually _asked_ it was a no-brainer.

"You really aren't bothered by them, are you?" he asked in a rather conversational tone of voice, since he knew it was true. It was still hard to wrap his head around at times, though.

He would understand, especially since they'd been friends at first and she'd then developed stronger feelings for him over time, if she had come to love him _despite_ his hanyou features, looking past his youkai traits to see his inner human since he was, in fact, half human, too, but he knew that that wasn't the case with Kagome. In fact, once, over a year ago, she'd even told him she thought his ears were _cute_.

"You know I'm not," she answered softly.

"I don't really get _why_ ," he admitted. "But don't get me wrong. I'm _glad_ you're okay with them, and sure, if you wanna touch 'em, go ahead," he said then, as he tilted his head down a little bit.

Not about to hesitate after being given permission, Kagome immediately started rubbing his right ear with her left hand, the hanyou closing his eyes and tilting his head into her touch.

"I don't see you as a human man who's disfigured in some way, you know," she said after a moment. "You are half human and half inu-youkai, and that's simply who and what you are," she explained, finally releasing his left hand to reach up and start rubbing his left ear, as well. He whined softly, tilting his head the other way a little bit. "Many youkai have characteristics, like your ears, that make them look different from humans," she continued then. "You are a _person_ to me, a person who just happens to be half canine, and therefore you have canine traits, like your ears, claws and fangs. They not only do not _bother_ me, but because I _love_ you, that includes your youkai features because they are a _part_ of you."

Eyes closed in bliss, a content smile on his face, somewhere in the back of his mind Inuyasha was aware of the fact that Kagome was talking to him. That she was saying basically the same thing Kikyou had told him on more than one occasion, which had turned out to _not_ be true, didn't really worry him in that moment when she was massaging his ears so expertly. Kikyou had certainly never done _that_. Telling him they didn't bother her was all fine and good, but Kagome was _showing_ him how she really felt. Vaguely, he was aware of her shifting her position on the couch, but so long as her talented fingers kept on doing what they were doing he was putty in her hands, as the saying went. He whined again when he felt her right hand leave his left ear, but before he could open his eyes, something warm and _wet_ closed around the fuzzy appendage and he yelped in surprise, electric tingles shooting straight to his manhood as his eyes snapped open to take in nothing but a sea of red fabric.

She sat back down quickly at his reaction, frightened she had overstepped her bounds when he stared at her in shock.

"I'm sorry! I just...I...I just thought..."

Reaching out and grabbing her, Inuyasha yanked Kagome forward, the miko tumbling into his lap, as he slammed his lips back down over her own in a fierce, dominating kiss.

Mentally filing that trick away for later, Kagome immediately returned his kiss, giving as good as she got. She was a fast learner and, after settling herself a little more comfortably in his lap, Inuyasha twisting so that he was sitting on the couch normally with both legs down, her legs spread and resting on the cushion on either side of his thighs, she reached up with both hands and resumed rubbing his ears again while continuing to kiss him. Inuyasha, in turn, had tight fistfuls of hair and pajamas in his right and left hands, respectively, as a low rumbling growl sounded from deep within his chest. Kagome couldn't miss it as something hard in his lap began pressing intimately up against her, but when she started rocking against him, making the hanyou gasp into their kiss, instead of eroding away his higher brain functions even further it functioned as a sharp jolt of reality, causing him to practically tear himself out of the kiss, his hands reaching up and grabbing her wrists to pull her hands down and away from his ears as he stared at her with a serious expression, his breathing labored.

Instead of feeling worried, again, that she had done something wrong, a sense of confidence overcame the miko. He _was_ her boyfriend, after all. She hadn't done anything wrong.

"You need to cut that out," he ground out, his voice deeper than usual.

She smirked at him.

"Why?"

He smirked, too, the expression wicked, his fangs glistening in the light.

"Because," he started, giving his hips a little bounce for emphasis, "if we don't stop _now,_ I might not be able to stop myself later."

"Who says I wanted you to stop, at all?"

"Kagome..." Releasing her hands, he closed his eyes and audibly groaned, rubbing his right hand down over his face. She was going to be the death of him yet. "We can't just...I mean...I think it would probably be best if I headed home, now, before we do something we regret."

She didn't budge, except to cock an eyebrow at him.

"Would _you_ regret it?" she asked. "And remember, honesty is the best policy."

He laughed, but it sounded strained.

"Of course not, but you-"

"Then you didn't mean before we do something _we'll_ regret, you just think that _I'll_ regret it," she interrupted. "But I'm nineteen, not sixteen, and the only thing I would regret is letting you get up and walk out that door without finishing what you started."

To make her point, she started rocking against him again, his denim encased excitement still as hard as stone and resting snugly against her pajama clad heat. Closing his eyes, his head fell back, his hands finding their way to her hips although he didn't try to stop her movements.

 _How did I go from afraid she might not return my feelings to getting a lap dance?_ he vaguely wondered, until the friction getting just a little too delicious had his hands tightening their grip as he moaned.

"Okay, you need to stop _that_ before I _can't_ finish what I started," he said, and she giggled again. "See, it's when you laugh like _that_ that I see you as some sort of innocent little thing who should be offended by my nasty thoughts, and yet you're not. It's a really weird juxtaposition."

"I wouldn't be friends with Miroku if I'm _that_ easy to offend," she pointed out.

"Good point," he acknowledged.

"I can't help the way my laugh sounds," she said, leaning forward to kiss him slowly and sensually. He moaned again, his hands tightening their grip on her hips. Pulling back after a moment she whispered against his lips, "But I can promise you I'm not as innocent as you think I am."

He didn't know _what_ possessed him to actually smirk at her and say, "Prove it."

The next thing Inuyasha knew, Kagome sat up straight, crossed her arms in front of her stomach, and lifted her pajama top clean off.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

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If Kagome didn't have concrete evidence that Inuyasha was attracted to her – it certainly _felt_ as hard as concrete, anyway – then she might have been embarrassed with the way he was just silently staring at her naked chest, not sure what he was actually thinking. Was he judging her? Comparing her to Kikyou, perhaps? And how did she measure up in that contest? But when she really studied him, his facial expression, or lack thereof, actually reminded the miko of how Sango had told her _Miroku_ had looked the first time she'd shown him _her_ boobs.

She couldn't help it. She giggled.

That got his attention, as he finally managed to lift his eyes from her chest to her face.

"You look like you've never seen breasts before, but that can't possibly be true, so what gives?" she teased him lightheartedly.

" _Act_ ually..." he started, his voice cracking, which had her giggling again. Clearing his throat, he started over. "Actually, in our few moments of intimacy together, Kikyou never got beyond bra and panties."

"Really?"

Kagome's eyes lit up at the unexpected news.

"Really," Inuyasha confirmed, figuring his new girlfriend definitely deserved to know what he had, and hadn't, done with his previous girlfriend.

He couldn't concentrate with her breasts right in his face, though. Sighing, he closed his eyes. "We kissed a lot, touched each other over our clothing a lot, but the clothes never started coming off until the start of college, once we had our own apartments, and she'd said she wanted to take things slowly, so..."

"Oh, you poor dear," Kagome murmured, never having realized that, on top of everything else, Kikyou had been giving him a major case of blue balls.

He nodded, cracking his eyes back open.

"It was hard..."

"I bet," she interjected. He laughed.

"No, well yes, but I mean, keeping a leash on my youkai instincts was hard."

"Because you wanted to be all primal and just throw her down and ravish her but she wanted you to take your time and be slow and gentle?" Kagome guessed.

He nodded again.

"Exactly."

How he was managing to have this conversation with a topless Kagome sitting in his lap he had no idea.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

"Ex- _excuse_ me?"

" _I_ certainly don't want you to keep your youkai side on a leash," she said. Thinking of something else as his eyes widened, detecting the faintest hint of worry on his face, Kagome went out on a limb and added, "And if you're even remotely worried about _this_..." Reaching down between her legs with her right hand, she cupped him through his jeans, which earned a hiss from the hanyou as he closed his eyes again. "I already know, and it doesn't bother me."

It took a second for those words to make sense to him.

"Did Miroku..."

She shook her head.

"Kikyou told me, in disgust, when I confronted her about the breakup back during summer break."

"And it doesn't gross you out?"

He _had_ been worried, a little, teenie tiny bit. While he'd been pretty sure that Kagome wouldn't have freaked out on him, probably wouldn't even have stopped him, he'd been worried that it would be an unpleasant surprise. He'd actually been thinking about how, or when, to warn her, if they were really going to do what it seemed like they were planning on doing.

"Honestly," Kagome answered, "I don't think it would gross me out if you told me you were going to form a _knot_."

His eyes widened again at that.

"I _love_ you," she stressed, "and I'm sick and tired of you ignoring the fact that I'm sitting here topless."

 _That_ got him going. Grinning at her wickedly before purposefully lowering his gaze back down to her exposed chest, he made a show of licking his lips.

"Believe me, I'm sick of ignoring it, too."

That said, his hands that had been on her hips moved faster than she could see. All of a sudden, his left hand was pressing against her back, keeping her from falling as he leaned forward which caused her to lean backwards, while his right hand reached for her left breast as his mouth attacked its twin. She gasped at the unexpected onslaught of sensation, her left hand clutching his right sleeve while her right hand lifted up to grab a fistful of hair, although not in an attempt to pull him away. His right index and thumb teased and pinched while his tongue moved in circles, and she retaliated for the unrelenting stimulation by moving her hand up to his ear, rubbing in a way she now knew he liked very much. That had him growling against her flesh, the vibrations sending shivers down her spine that had her gasping while the scent of her arousal flooded his nose.

The next thing Kagome knew, he'd picked her up and was carrying her towards the bedroom, her hands automatically going around his neck to hang on while his mouth descended on hers again as he kissed her hungrily. With both hands cupping her ass, holding her in place, she responded by wrapping her legs around his waist, returning the kiss with all she had.

Tossing her down onto her bed once he reached the bedroom, chuckling deeply at the way she blinked up at him in surprise as she bounced on the mattress, Inuyasha reached forward and grabbed both of her pajama pant legs at her ankles, and yanked.

Suddenly finding herself lying on top of her comforter in nothing but a pair of white lace panties, Kagome's modesty was the furthest thought on her mind as she propped herself up on her elbows in time to watch as Inuyasha divested himself of his sweater. As his hands moved to the button on his jeans, however, she scrambled to turn over and crawl up to the foot of the bed.

"Please, allow me..." she said, his hands dropping away to be replaced with her own. "It's like opening a Christmas present."

Slowly, torturously so for the hanyou, her nimble fingers worked to unfasten the button, the tip of her tongue poking out of her mouth in her concentration. Then, she pulled the zipper down, her free hand cupping his length at the same time. He groaned, barely resisting the urge to rock against her hand. As she began tugging down the sides of his jeans, revealing bright red boxers that made her smile – red did seem to be both of their favorite colors – Inuyasha didn't know how much more he could take when, finally, after getting his jeans to his thighs she let go and scooted back a bit.

Immediately, he removed his jeans the rest of the way, nearly tripping himself up in his haste to get his feet out of the pant legs, which for someone with his natural balance was quite the feat. His enthusiasm had her laughing again, not _at_ him, but just because she was so _happy_ she couldn't help but laugh in her joy, and he was not offended. Looking up and seeing her sitting there on her bed, dressed in nothing but white panties and a smile, and realizing that he, himself, was only wearing a pair of red boxers, his eagerness plain as day with the way the fabric tented, it was hard for Inuyasha to believe that this moment was really real, that this was really happening. It certainly hadn't been his goal when he'd first come over. If he could go back and change anything now, he wouldn't change a damn thing. Not the way Kikyou had broken his heart, or the way Kagome had felt the need to keep her true feelings concealed, or the way he'd slowly started to fall for her without realizing it, or the way in a moment of desperation to not be seen as a gold digger she had confessed her true feelings to Kikyou, _or_ the way it had taken him a week to build up the nerve to talk to her about it and admit to his own feelings after overhearing said confession. If any one variable was changed, who knew what kind of havoc the butterfly effect from that change could bring? No, he would endure it all knowing that it would land him right here, right now, and without even having to ask, he knew Kagome felt the same way.

"What are you thinking?" she asked him at his suddenly rather serious expression.

He smirked.

"That you're still too overdressed."

She cocked a brow at him, sure he had been thinking something much deeper than that although she would let it go. "I could tell you the same thing," she said instead.

"Oh yeah?" he asked playfully. "What are you gonna do about that?"

"This..." Kagome replied, as she reached up and hooked her fingers into the elastic waistband of his boxers. Pausing for only a moment and meeting his eyes, he nodded. She tugged.

 _Wow, it really is the exact same color as a dog's,_ she thought, amused. _Or half of it is, at least,_ she amended, as his bright reddish pink phallus sprang free, the taut flesh shining in the light of her bedroom lamp.

Aside from color, it looked completely human, and since he was uncircumcised, his foreskin actually _was_ the same color as his body. It was only the glans and the first bit of shaft, what his foreskin covered when flaccid, that was reddish pink. Being lonely and in love, she had done a lot of research on the subject over the years. But even having been forewarned about his coloring she hadn't really known what to expect, especially with the way _Kikyou_ had told it. She had been prepared for his shape to be a little different, too, but aside from perhaps being unusually _big_ there was nothing inhuman about it.

And as far as she was concerned, _big_ was a _good_ thing.

Having fully stepped out of his boxers, Inuyasha supposed turnabout was fair play as he observed the way Kagome just sat there and stared. It was the lack of disgust on her face and the tantalizing scent of her arousal that had him feeling brave enough to just stand there and let her soak it all in rather than wanting to reach for the nearest object in a lame attempt at concealing himself. But after a full minute of silent staring enough was enough.

"Your turn," he reminded politely, trying to keep a touch of humor in his voice as he pointed with his right index finger to the white lace panties she still wore.

Finally, her eyes drifted back up to meet his own, but then they turned wicked, the promise in their stormy depths making him hold his breath in anticipation.

"In a minute," she said teasingly, before reaching up with her right hand, her fingers curling around him.

It was something she'd been fantasizing about for a while now, plus the more innocent part of her psyche had been curious. He felt like velvet wrapped steel, soft and yet unyielding. Not really sure what she was doing but figuring his reaction was a positive one, she smirked when his legs shook.

Seeing her reach for him so brazenly, hissing as her hand closed around him, the hanyou was reminded once again how there was truly no comparison between her and Kikyou. On that fateful night nearly five months ago, he and the other miko had shyly gotten into bed together in their underwear, sitting rather awkwardly until they'd tentatively started kissing, until finally the passion had built up between them. Slipping his boxers off under the blanket, Kikyou had started touching him, but when she'd boldly pulled back the covers she had, of course, proceeded to freak the fuck out.

In that moment, as Inuyasha stared down at Kagome experimentally pleasuring him, he was suddenly reminded of her previous assurance that she didn't want him to suppress his youkai desires.

Suddenly, it was like flipping a switch in his brain.

"Panties off before I _tear_ them off," he growled as his left hand snapped down and latched onto her right wrist in a death grip and flung it away from him.

Unhurt but startled, Kagome looked up at him only to gape at the way he was staring down at her with an unmistakably predatory glint in his eyes, crimson red bleeding into the edges of irises she'd only ever known as golden yellow. She couldn't have hidden how badly the sight turned her on even if she'd wanted to, what with his canine sense of smell, but as it was, she scrambled to obey, barely laying back and pulling her panties down and away before he pounced.

Belatedly bracing for impact, because by the time her brain registered the fact that he'd moved he was already lying stretched out on top of her, kissing her senseless, legs resting between her own, it took the miko another couple of seconds to realize that he actually hadn't entered her. That probably would have hurt, but his goal in that moment was clearly to give her, to give both of them, nothing but pleasure.

Rocking his hips against her, the delicious friction taking enough of the edge off for at least a minute or two, Inuyasha moan-growled into the kiss when Kagome one upped him by spreading her legs wide while also reaching down between their bodies to make sure he was rubbing against her _just right_ with every stroke. Kagome started rocking her hips as well, then, helping him to find the perfect rhythm in a dance that was lost somewhere between sex and dry humping, her hands tightly cupping his buttocks.

"Kagome..." he groaned between kisses. "I want you _so_ bad."

"Then _take_ me," she replied, her voice just as strained as his was.

He wanted to. He wanted nothing more than to just gyrate his hips enough to align himself and plunge forward, but he could tell she was close and he would _not_ take his pleasure without first delivering her own.

Ceasing all movement, he pulled back from their continual kissing and whispered in her ear, "You first."

That was the only warning she got when suddenly, the warmth and weight of him was gone, and in the very next instant, there was a ravenous inu-hanyou feasting from between her legs.

"Oh kami!" she shrieked.

Inuyasha's time spent watching Internet porn during the closing months of his and Kikyou's relationship had thankfully gifted him with enough knowledge to at least somewhat know what he was doing, and for the rest he relied on his instincts and Kagome's own varying reactions to guide him. The miko was losing her mind, and verbal commands like higher or faster were out of the question, but it didn't take him long to figure out what had her losing her mind the _most_ and he kept at it until, in a last ditch effort to not _completely_ scandalize her neighbors, she blindly reached beside her head for the second pillow and just managed to bring it to her mouth in time to partially muffle her scream as the best, most mind shattering orgasm of her entire life rocketed through her body at warp speed.

Not sure when he should stop but figuring she would certainly tell him to at some point, he just kept right on going, pinning Kagome's thrashing body to the bed with little effort. She endured it for as long as she could before finally squeaking out the desperate plea, "No more!" and he ceased immediately, sitting up on his legs at the foot of the bed, his own arousal as obvious as ever as he licked his lips in satisfaction.

Kagome removed the pillow from her face just in time to see his satisfied expression, and chuckling a little, she muttered, "Cocky bastard."

Inuyasha made a show of glancing down at his lap.

"Why yes, yes I am."

"Okay," she said. "Now that you've had your fun, how about putting that thing to good use. It's _your_ turn now."

His eyes, which had still had the faintest hint of red around the edges, bled just a little more crimson at her words. He wasn't on the verge of transforming, his inner beast was just a little closer to the surface than normal. That he felt comfortable enough around her to let himself go to that extent really meant a lot to her, but no more so than it meant to him, that he _could_ let himself go, that she _accepted_ the beast within him.

"Turn over," he commanded then, and fully understanding, she obeyed without hesitation, propping herself up on her hands and knees, facing the headboard.

The visual of Kagome presenting herself to him like an inu bitch stirred something in Inuyasha deep inside. If he hadn't already realized he'd fallen in love with her, this sight would've had him falling right then and there. Approaching her without delay, he came up behind her and palmed her ass lovingly. Kagome, in response, lowered her front half towards the bed, resting on her arms from elbow to wrist. Grabbing her left hip with his left hand, then, careful of his claws, he aligned himself with his right hand before moving his right hand to her right hip.

"You ready?" he asked, his voice, while more gravelly than normal, still reflecting the compassion he felt for her. "I don't want to hurt you." If he weren't secretly worried about doing _that_ with clawed fingers, he would've taken a moment to better prepare her.

"You won't hurt me," she assured him then. "I've...uh...broken myself in," she admitted, only slightly embarrassed by the confession.

He rumbled his happy growl in approval of this revelation and thrust forward. They both gasped at the sensation, the feeling completely foreign to him and nearly overwhelming while for Kagome, knowing she was with the man she'd been in love with for over two years was damn near overloading her heart. A few tears of joy slipped down her cheeks unbidden, which had Inuyasha freezing in place, not that he wouldn't have had to pause a moment, anyway, to keep from losing it.

"Kagome?"

"I'm just so _happy_."

That was all the reassurance he needed, and with the jolt from the initial shock of it all slowly starting to fade, he pulled his hips back, groaning as he did, only to push forward once more. The pace was agonizingly slow, at first, but it was for his own sake as well as hers, as he gradually increased his tempo as his body adjusted. It didn't take too long before he was slamming forward in powerful thrusts that hit something inside Kagome she'd never even known existed, and she once again buried her face in the pillow to keep from crying out embarrassingly loud as a completely different type of rapture overtook her.

Feeling Kagome shudder below him, her muffled cries of ecstasy ringing in his ears, Inuyasha tightened his grip, both on her hips and on his sanity, as he increased his speed even more. All he was thinking about in that moment was _her_ pleasure, of wanting to give her all that he could, all that he was. Suddenly feeling that all too familiar tingling, there was hardly any warning. Unlike the slow approach of a finish line whenever he pleasured himself, a goal he frantically sought to reach, this time, Inuyasha barely had time to register that his release was imminent and then it hit him, his mind going blank as the most powerful, mind-blowing orgasm he'd ever experienced ripped his soul to shreds.

Crying out in a way that could have easily been mistaken for pain if Kagome hadn't intimately known better, she felt the way Inuyasha's whole body trembled, and then he was lying against her, his shaking and sweaty body draped across her back, his hands moving from her hips to her breasts although he didn't fondle them, merely using them to hold on, whether to her or to his sanity, or both, she wasn't sure. As her body slowly came back down from its own euphoric high, the knowledge that he, too, had found such bliss, with her, gave Kagome an almost overwhelming sense of satisfaction that had nothing to do with how sated she currently felt.

Feeling an odd sensation across her upper back after a moment, between her shoulder blades, it took the miko a few seconds to realize that Inuyasha was actually licking her. Her hair had fallen forward during their activities, exposing the expanse of glistening skin, which he was now giving uniform, repeated strokes of his tongue, and instead of being weirded out her heart melted at the realization. Granted, he'd been using his tongue on her in a technically much more intimate way only a few short minutes ago, but this act now was decidedly canine, like he was giving her doggie kisses – either that or he found her sweaty skin especially delicious at the moment – and she wasn't honestly even sure if he knew he was doing it. A part of her didn't want to shatter the moment, but, on the other hand, she was starting to get a little uncomfortable, physically, and would really like to be able to turn around and sit down.

Fortunately, before she could even make the decision to clear her throat or something, Inuyasha seemed to come back to his senses. Abruptly ceasing his ministrations, he paused for a moment, belatedly realizing what he'd been doing, and then blushing hotly, grateful she couldn't see his face at the moment, he raised himself back up and pulled away from her. Kagome immediately shifted herself around while tugging down her blankets at the same time, getting herself underneath them and propped up against her headboard at the far right of her bed, with plenty of room for Inuyasha to snuggle up beside her on her left.

Offering her boyfriend a warm smile when he gave her an awkward, apologetic look, she patted the available spot at her side.

"Come on, silly," she teased when he looked mildly surprised. "What? Did you think I was going to kick you out now or something?" She laughed. "You're spending the night with me whether you like it or not."

"I guess I didn't really think about it," he admitted a little sheepishly as he got himself into bed beside her. "I wasn't planning on ditching out on you, though."

"Well that's good," she said before giggling a little.

Seeing the way Inuyasha's attention was immediately drawn down to her still exposed breasts when she laughed, she didn't get upset, but rolling her eyes, she pulled the blankets up a little bit higher and held them against her chest. That caught his attention and he raised his eyes, which were back to their usual golden yellow color, back up to her own.

"Sorry," he apologized somewhat insincerely, his tone of voice playful, which earned him another giggle from his happy girlfriend.

Snuggling up against him, Kagome leaned her head against his shoulder, and he responded by wrapping his right arm around her body, holding her close.

"This is nice," she said after a moment.

"Yeah," he agreed. "I'm glad this isn't awkward." Then he remembered the way he'd started licking her back. He cringed. "Or at least, it's not _too_ awkward."

Lifting her head up to look at him, she smirked, and then licked his cheek. His eyes widened in surprise.

"No, you were right the first time," she told him, in a roundabout way of letting him know she wasn't disturbed by what he'd done. "Awkward was believing I had to conceal my true feelings, and then realizing I had outed myself, my friends only pretending to have bought my lame excuse. Awkward was when I was sure the love of my life, my best friend in the world, not only did not return my feelings, but found my feelings for him too uncomfortable to remain my friend."

Laying her head back down against his shoulder again, she added, "I'll tell you what's _not_ awkward. When my half canine youkai boyfriend exhibits behavioral traits inherent to his species."

"You're fucking amazing, do you know that?" he told her, before turning his head enough to bury his nose in her hair. He inhaled deeply. "And you smell fucking amazing right now, too."

"I would imagine I smell like sweat and sex, and you."

"Exactly."

She laughed at that. Not her childish giggle, but a full belly laugh.

"Well I'm too tired and it's too cold to take a shower, so you get to bask in the scent all night long 'cause I already went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth before you showed up, so I've got no reason to move from this spot until morning."

"Sounds good to me."

Clicking off her bedside lamp, they were plunged into darkness, although it only took a moment for her eyes to adjust thanks to the city lights creeping in through the window. He could still see as plain as day.

"So when you said during your big confession to Kikyou that you'd cried to your mother about it, your feelings for me, was that part also true?" he asked after a moment, wanting to know if his suspicions about Mrs. Higurashi were correct.

"Yeah," Kagome admitted. "Mom knows I love you, which is why she agreed to go along with 'the plan,'" she said with air quotes, knowing he'd see the gesture no problem. "She warned me, too, not to get my hopes up." Smiling, and glancing Inuyasha's way, Kagome gave him a human style kiss on the cheek. "I'm glad I get to tell her that I got my fairy tale ending, after all.

"Did you agree to pretend to be my girlfriend because you were hoping I'd fall in love with you?" he asked, not at all upset. He was merely curious.

"Actually, at the time, no."

Looking him in the eyes, enough light coming in from the window to not only let her see him, but to catch in his eyes and give them an otherworldly, demonic glow, Kagome explained how, when she'd originally volunteered to pretend to be his girlfriend, when they'd been discussing it in his apartment, she really only had been thinking of him, of doing it for him because she would do _anything_ to help him. It hadn't occurred to her until later that he could possibly wind up developing feelings for her, but even then, she hadn't _really_ believed it. It had been a fun, fanciful thought, a true fairy tale ending, like her mom had called it. She'd thought about the possibility like a daydream, fantasizing that wouldn't it be nice if that wound up happening, but even as she'd thought it in passing she'd _thought_ she'd known that, in reality, he would most likely only ever see her as a friend.

"I actually did toy with the possibility of you and I getting together _eventually_ fairly early on," he admitted then. It was Inuyasha's turn to earn a look of surprise from his partner. "While my heart hadn't been ready to think about romance, and I hadn't really been _capable_ of feeling romantic love for you, in the beginning, because I was just so torn up over Kikyou, I've always _cared_ for you, Kagome. In a weird way of kind of separating myself from my emotions, just looking over the situation, I'd thought, well, maybe down the road you and I could end up together for real. It wasn't really something I'd _wanted,_ at the time, but I consciously realized that I would not be _opposed_ to the idea, either. I was just so numb, and the idea of loving _anyone_ seemed unrealistic back then."

"I understand," she said, because she did. "And then let me guess. Even back then you brushed off the notion as just a passing 'what if' because you thought _I_ only saw _you_ as a friend."

"Yeah." He chuckled. "We're quite the pair, aren't we?"

"I'm glad. I'm glad we _are_ a pair."

"Forever," he confirmed with a nod.

Her eyes widened a little bit.

"Did...did you just ask me to marry you?"

"Uh..." Blushing again, and glad that her human night vision wasn't sharp enough to catch it, he answered, "Unintentionally, I guess." He took a deep breath. "Well crap, that probably should've been better planned."

She giggled.

"I didn't really think about it," he admitted then. "I just blurted it out because, as far as I'm concerned, I _do_ want you in my life _forever_. So yeah, will you marry me?"

"Of course I will," she answered without hesitation.

He pulled her into another kiss, and as one thing led to another, Kagome got to learn, first hand, that Inuyasha did indeed know how to us _his_ hands without his claws being an issue. _He_ also learned that he wasn't the only one with a talented tongue. It was another hour before they finally fell asleep, Kagome held securely in Inuyasha's spooning embrace.

 _._

 _._

 _~ Fin ~_


End file.
